The legend of Spyro: Aftermath
by Hepolite
Summary: What happened to Spyro and Cynder after the fall of Malefor? Are they alive, if so, where are they? Will they be able to find their home? What would happen if something from Cynder's past as the 'terror of the skies' showed up? Read to find out!
1. Introduction & Author's note

**Author's note:**

This is the first story I've ever written, so please don't expect too much. The first chapters will not be very long, but I hope to get them longer in the near future. Well, at least as long as I can get them...

All the distances, temperatures, weights, volumes and all this are not measured in miles, yards, Fahrenheit, oz, pounds or anything like that. Here everything is measured in meters, kilometers, Celsius, liters, kilos and so on. Keep this in mind when/if I use the word "miles", I mean 10 kilometers, which is about 6.25 American miles (~11000 yards). If you figure out that the dimensions used in the story don't fit, it might be because of this. Hopefully this wont confuse too many.

Please enjoy! :D

PS: This story will tell the ending of "The legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon", so if you want to know what happens in the end of the game, I recommend that you finish the game first.

**I don't own Spyro, Cynder or anything else from the Spyro games. All the OC's are mine, as well as this story.**

**WARNING!  
Later in this story, there will be used scenes with blood and gore. I do not recommend that you reads this story if you don't like moderate to light strong scenes. Chapter 6-9 will be the worst. They are re-written to hold less blood and gore, but some of that still remain.**

* * *

**(Introduction)**

"Spyro, no! You don't have to do anything. Let's just go." "Where, Cynder? There'll be nothing left. The world is breaking apart" he replied, as the world above them began to break apart. Large chunks of earth and dirt was ripped apart as light from above shone down on the two dragons. "I think I can stop this. I think I'm meant to." She looked at him, finally she said "Then I'm with you." He smiled, and began to hover. He spread his wings out, feeling the flow of energy. He started to glow with a blinding white, partially purple light, and then he released the energy in an attempt of pulling the world back together. It felt like an eternity, his strength was draining. It almost felt like he wasn't going to be able to save the world, but then, she said three words; "I love you…" He felt his strength returning, giving a final push and then everything disappeared in the bright, white light before slowly fading to blackness…

Somewhere on the scattered remains of the planet, in a cave, a yellow light appeared. The little dragonfly went out of the cave. Slowly behind it, three large and old dragons and one cheetah came to view. The amazing sight before them told them that it finally was over. The dark master had been defeated. The remaining of the planet slowly descended down towards the center and took shape as the planet as it was before. They looked up into the skies and beyond, to the stars. Up there they saw the shapes of two young dragons who sacrificed everything to save this world.

Somewhere else, on the White Isle in the Celestial Caves, the grayish, blue and very old dragon known as the Chronicler turned a page in his book. "Be welcome friend" he said, looking over his left shoulder. "I have long been expecting you." He said before turning his head down towards his book. "A new age is beginning. With each new age, a worthy dragon is chosen to chronicle the many triumphs and failures of that age. This has been my duty for many millennia. And now," he again looked over his left shoulder, to the other dragon standing there "Ignitus, I pass this honor over to you." Ignitus came closer to the Chronicler, slowly he said "And… What about Spyro? Is he…" Ignitus left the rest of the sentence out, before the Chronicler replied: "Hmm… That is the question, isn't it? You see, each time a dragon dies, a new page is written in this book." The chronicler put away the first book, and a new came to view. "I've done my best, but can't seem to find any trace of Spyro." This was the Chronicler's final words, before he began to emit a bright, blue light and then vanished, leaving the red, former Fire Guardian as the new Chronicler, now with a light blue color. "Well, young dragon… Where might you be?" Ignitus said as he began reading through the book.


	2. Chapter 1: A new world

**Chapter ****1: (A new world)**

Slowly, the darkness faded away. Everything was blurred and every muscle hurt. The feeling of soft grass reduced the pain caused by the tiny movements. The soft winds blew against the scales, it tinkled a little bit. Spyro kept his eyes closed for a little longer, hoping the pains would subside. The warmth of the sun got the best of him, so he tried to roll over to the other side. A sharp pain caused him to release a small yelp. His muscles where exhausted after releasing so much energy in such short time span, every time a muscle moved it sent out a painful sting. "Cynder…?" he whispered, too weak to talk. "Cyn?" he asked again. He quickly opened his eyes and looked around him. He didn't see Cynder anywhere. 'Oh no…' he thought, trying to avoid the thought that he had lost her. 'Where can she be?' He looked around for signs of her, but didn't see anything. The surroundings were unfamiliar, he didn't recognize the area, nor did he spot any landmarks. 'I don't think I've been here before,' he thought, before continuing to look for traces after Cynder.

He got up of his paws and took a few cautious steps. The feeling of his legs taking his weight was painful, but he forced himself to keep staying. Otherwise he would not be able to get anywhere. He looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the dragoness, but all he saw was trees, cliffs and mountains, even a few birds in trees. In the distance he could hear a waterfall and birds singing. A sharp pain of the back of his head caused his vision to fade out and back again. 'Great, I have a head-ache too' he thought. He went towards an opening in the threes, only to be met with more trees. He continued in that direction, hoping that he would find some more open terrain to navigate in, also hoping that he would not meet any creatures, in his condition he would be no match for them, as he had about no energy left.

Meanwhile, Cynder woke up. "Ugh, my head…" she said slowly, opening her eyes. At first, she saw nothing at all. She began to panic, but tried to calm herself down. "Okay, take it easy. You're probably just temporarily blind, that's why you can't see anything. You'll be able to see soon…" She closed her eyes some minute. She opened them, hoping to catch a small glimpse of light. She didn't see anything at first, but slowly her vision became clearer. She saw a small beam of light, not sure where exactly she was. She stood up onto her paws and stretched her legs a bit before walking over to the light. She could hear bird and animal sounds close to her, but couldn't see them. A sharp pain burrowed itself into her front paw, making her pull her paw back. 'It's just a sharp rock, nothing to worry about'. Her vision returned to normal, except for a small blur as she pushed through the vegetation, to an open area.

'Where is this?' she thought to herself. She noticed a large mountain not far away, and a large lake resting at the bottom of the mountain. Two rivers came from the valleys that lied behind a smaller mountain behind it. The rivers merged together before they ended in the lake. Along one side of the river, a large forest grew. On the other side, there was an open field with grass with many flowers that grew in the moist earth. Cynder also spotted a few crystals over there, so she plotted her course over there. She tried to fly there, but her wings seemed to be damaged. She checked them, but could not find any physical damage. She wasn't going to fly anytime soon, she realized, not until she had rested. 'Since Spyro wasn't where I woke up, he must be somewhere else. Hopefully he won't be too far away' she thought to herself.

Spyro had also spotted a lake, but he didn't head that way. He headed for some higher grounds, the hills behind the lake to get a better view around the surroundings. He thought that if Cynder was somewhere near, he would be able to spot her from there. The top of the hill didn't have trees to block the view, but gave a clear view for at least a kilometer. Spyro didn't walk for long before he heard some branches snap behind him and the bushes rustled. He quickly turned around, speaking out load: "Who's there? Show yourself!" he demanded. Nothing moved, Spyro tried to listen for a sound. Suddenly the creature leaped out of the bush and ran past him and kept running. 'I got scared of a rabbit.' he thought. 'I'm really losing my mind…' Somewhere else not far away, a couple of eyes watched Spyro as he kept walking…

A few hours passed, the sun had reached its peak, now it began its journey to the horizon. In not many hours, the night would be upon Spyro and Cynder. They were still both alone in a forest, searching for each other, aware of the fact that they could be separated with hundreds of kilometers. Cynder had managed to regain some of her energy from a green crystal she had found but it wasn't nearly as much as she needed to recover. She began to think back to the battle with the evil dragon, Malefor. He had almost succeeded with destroying the world, but Cynder and Spyro had stopped him and ended the destruction of the world. 'I still can't believe we got out of that alive' she thought for herself. 'If only I could remember what happened after we first entered the dark master's lair.' She thought of Spyro. Her eyes began to water, and a few tears fell from her eyes to the ground. What if she would never see him again, what if she was alone in this world?

The night began to fall and the two young dragons had still to find each other. Spyro had moved from the hills down to the lake in a search for a cave where he could spend the night. While he walked around the lake for a while, he spotted a nice cave. He also noticed a few rocks that formed a perfect entrance. One rock had moss that grew under the rock, and not above as it did with the other rocks. This kept Spyro puzzled for some minutes, before he walked to the entrance. He looked inside the cave, but didn't see anything. He assumed that no creature lived within, so he went inside. He could feel that there was something about this cave, but couldn't exactly place words on it. He dragged some logs with him and tried to light them up. He only managed to summon a small spark, but the wood caught it and lit up. Spyro finally rested for the first time after the battle with Malefor. As he looked at the sparks bursting from the wood, he tried to think back to the fight with Malefor.

_~Flashback~_

_Spyro and Cynder approached the large door. They knew were well that the dark master was behind those doors. "Are you ready for this?" asked Spyro. "I'm scared" answered Cynder. Spyro started walking towards the large door. "Just stay close to me" he said, the door opened, and they entered._

Cynder noticed some light from the other side of the lake. She walked towards the light, not aware of the creatures that followed her. Just when she had crossed the grassland and reached the forest, a small dart flew out of the bushes and struck Cynder in her left leg, instantly paralyzing it. She quickly realized that it was poisoned, her vision started to blur and went darker. 'No, stay awake!' she thought 'Spyro…' her vision faded to black, and she fell down on the ground, unconscious and dragged away by some unknown creatures.


	3. Chapter 2: In the wilderness

**Chapter 2: (In the wilderness)**

Spyro felt a small, stabbing pain in his chest. He peeked out of the cave; he knew that something had happened to Cynder. It was now dark, but Spyro went outside, following his feelings. He knew Cynder had to be somewhere close.

Cynder woke up in a cage. A small, but solid cage made out of wooden sticks. 'There's no way I can break out of this cage from the inside without them noticing' she thought. She looked over to the creatures, but her vision was still very blurred, she hadn't recovered from the battle with Malefor yet either. 'What are they' she thought as the creatures moved back and forth, almost as if they were dancing. They looked like some kind of mixture between a frog and a cat, but there was no way to tell for sure. One of them came to Cynder and poked her with a stick. Cynder growled to the creature, it stepped a few steps backward but didn't leave. A few more creatures came to view. They grabbed the logs that was tied to the cage and lifted it. "Where are you taking me?" asked Cynder with a groggy voice. No one answered her, either because they couldn't or simply refused to.

A fire was lit, and one of the larger and uglier creatures started chanting some words. Cynder didn't understand anything, but she realized it could not be good, because all of the other creatures started cheering and dancing around. They kept doing this for quite some time, but suddenly the ugliest of them stood up. Cynder thought that this had to be their leader, since everyone went silence and everyone stopped dancing. The creature began yelling out some phrases, which Cynder didn't understand. She had never heard anything like it, but she didn't have much time to think over this.

The leader picked up a torch, and looked at Cynder. The creature yelled out some more of the weird language. Five of the creatures lifted her cage up, and started to walk towards the fire. Cynder realized that they would perhaps place her on the fire, so she attempted to break free from her cage, but one of the creatures picked up a spear and hit her with the blunt edge. Cynder kept trying to break free, but now the cage was half-way to the fire. Knowing this could be her fate, she roared out load, making the creatures stop in their tracks for a few seconds. This was all Cynder needed, she quickly turned towards the creatures that carried her cage and released some fear waves. Where she got her energy from, she didn't know. The creatures held their hands to their ears while they ran for cover, screaming. Other creatures picked up weapons, among them the poisoned darts. Cynder placed her entire weight on the cage, finally it buckled and she got out of it, but she was now trapped in the middle of the tribe. All around her, the creatures stood there, pointing at her with their spears and bows. The leader made some sounds, almost as if it was laughing. A few more sounds came from its maw and the creatures approached Cynder slowly, yelling and pointing the lethal weapons in her direction.

A few of them stabbed her with the spears in her rear, making her turn fast to them and spitting poison on them. The creature began to scream in agony and ran away, making all the other creatures rush towards Cynder. 'I can't take them all down alone!' she though. Before the first wave of creatures arrived, she blasted them away with a fear blast, but more creatures rushed in to take their place. "Oh no, you don't!" she said as she used her tail blade to cut off one of them off her back. She jumped up into the air and landed hard on a couple of the ones in front of her, crushing them under her weight.

One of the creatures got a spear in her side, creating a small hole in her. Blood started to flow and some of the creatures went berserk, jumping on Cynder with nothing but their claws and teeth. Cynder rolled over, pressed them down to the ground and did a quick turn and finished them with a blasted of poison. Another spear hit Cynder, this time in the base of her wing. She yelled at the pain and her left side got num. The creatures were simply too many for her. She realized this while her vision started to fade to black. One of the creatures had managed to get a dart through her scales. Just before Cynder fell unconscious, a giant roar filled the skies, and then her world went black.

**Author's note:**

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, it just ended like that. I can tell you that the next chapter and the ones after that will all be longer. Read and review please :)


	4. Chapter 3: You’re awake…

**Chapter 3:**** (You're awake...)**

Cynder opened one eye. She felt some cold water run over her side. She tried to stay awaken, but she was so tired, all she wanted to do was to sleep. A new wave of water ran over her wings, splashing over her wound. A sharp pain rolled over her as someone pulled a spearhead out of one of her wounds. Cynder's vision faded, and she saw only a blurred shadow of her rescuer. She tried to figure out if this could be Spyro, but she was overrun with fatigue. "Rest, you'll need it…" her savior said, before pulling Cynder out of the water.

Again, Cynder woke up. This time in a small cave, a fire burned and some logs was placed nearby. Some rocks had been moved to open the cave a little bit more, letting more daylight in. A few rocks had been moved to support the ceiling's weight a little bit better. She tried to stand up, but her side hurt too much. She heard a few footsteps behind her. "You're awake," someone said. Cynder turned her head and looked her rescuer in the eyes. "You're alive!" was all Cynder was able to say, her eyes beginning to water. "I thought I'd never see you again, Spyro" she said as a few tears escaped from her eyes. "I thought I had lost you, too." he said, "You took quite a lot of beating over there." Cynder noticed that the night had turned to day, before remembering what happened the night before. "How long have I been unconscious?" she asked. "Some hours, you missed the sunrise." Spyro said, looking out. "I… I felt that you were close last night. I felt that you were suffering. Then I heard a fight and got there as fast as I could. When I got there, I saw you lying on the ground in the middle of them. I don't know what happened after that, I just remember when we were both far away from there."

Cynder looked him in the eyes. He was sad, almost worse than when Ignitus had sacrificed himself so Spyro and Cynder could get across the belt of fire. Cynder realized how much she actually meant for Spyro. Now that Ignitus, Spyro's mentor and father figure, was gone, she was all he had now. "Spyro… Thank you for saving me from those creatures." Spyro smiled to Cynder. "That's the least I could do for you" he said. "Can you stand up? We should get further away from those creatures; I've heard them so they must be close to us."

Cynder stood up, shaking a little bit before falling over. "I got you," said Spyro as he caught her before she hit the ground. Cynder tried to stand again, this time she didn't fall. "Spyro?" asked Cynder. "Do you remember what happened after we entered Malefor's lair?" Spyro looked at her. "All I can remember is that we got to that door, after it opened, everything is black. I can't remember what happened, only that we somehow won. Can you remember anything?" Cynder looked down. "No, I can only remember that the door opened and we entered. The last thing I remember is Malefor's laugher. It's not pleasant."

They went outside, viewing the landscape. "I found this cave before you were captured by those creatures. This is the only safe place I know of right now." said Spyro. "I've never seen this place before, not even before you saved me from Malefor" said Cynder. She remembered how Malefor had used her to do his evil doings, how she had killed and destroyed entire villages. All of what she had done if the past, it pained her. Spyro noticed how bad she felt about mentioning this. "Cynder, the past is what's done. You're nothing like that anymore. It's over now." Spyro managed to cheer Cynder somewhat up, but she would never forget the horrible things she had done…

"We should go now." said Spyro. "Can you fly?" "I don't think so, my wings hurts every time I try to use them." replied Cynder. "Let me see," said Spyro. Cynder lowered her wings, letting Spyro see the wings. What Spyro saw, wasn't good. 'This doesn't look good,' he though. "We need to heal this wound soon." he said. A large hole had opened where Cynder had been hit by the spearhead, going as deep as the bone in her wing. "This will be infected if it isn't cleaned and closed."

"I know where we can find some red gems," said Cynder. "You see the grass field over there, at the river?" She pointed to the river on the other side of the lake. "The only problem is that it's very close to the creatures, and I don't want to run into them again." "We have to try, if we don't you might never be able to fly again." Spyro didn't want her to be attacked again, but he could not see any other solution. They began their journey, but took the long way around the lake to not run into the creatures. They had had enough with them, and didn't want any more trouble than they already had.

Spyro and Cynder looked around themselves as they walked around the lake. The vegetation that grew around them was something they had never seen before. Spyro didn't recognize any of the mushrooms he saw, the fact that he had grown up in a swap didn't help. None of the mushrooms there reminded him about the mushrooms he saw here. The flowers looked quite normal, but they were still unique. "I've never seen such foliage before, have you?" asked Spyro. Cynder turned away from a huge yellow flower. "I don't think so. This does remind me of some flowers in a distant land, or at least far away from the known land. I have no idea about where this might be." They continued along the edge of the lake, stopping now and then to examine a plant that stood out from the rest of the plants.

After about an hour, they came to the field. There was only one more obstacle they had to cross: the river that came from a valley up in the mountains. "The crystals I saw are on the other side of this river." said Cynder. "I'll go and get some of them, wait here," said Spyro, before he took off and flew over the river. Spyro smiled as he saw the crystals that grew from the ground. He landed close to the red crystals and broke off a few pieces. He also grabbed some green ones to regain some energy. He broke off some more so they had in reserve in case they would need them again later on. 'I should especially have some more of those red ones, they'll come in handy' he though. He turned around and went back to the river's edge. Then he noticed that something was missing, Cynder! "Cynder?" asked Spyro. No-one replied "Cynder!" he yelled, still no responds. He flew over to the other side of the river, his heart beating harder for every passing second. "Cynder!" he yelled again. He looked both to the left and right, but didn't see anyone. 'Where is she?!' he though for himself, as he dropped the gems and ran up and down the river. He never noticed the movement in the bushes on his left side.

Spyro turned around just in time to face the ambusher. "Ahh!" he screamed as Cynder tackled him to the ground. They rolled a little bit before coming to a halt, Cynder landed on her back laughing so hard that she couldn't breathe. Spyro couldn't resist laughing as well. "You really got me there," he said. "You better run, before I catch you!" he said as he ran after Cynder. This was the first time in ages they had actually been happy without fearing an attack from the dark master. They ran around for some minutes before they both came to a hold near the river, breathing heavily. "Ah, that really made me exhausted," said Spyro, as he looked at Cynder. "Yeah, me too. I guess that we should exercise some more." she said with a smile. Spyro laughed, "Yes, I'm sure we'll do that, we just have to get back to Warfang first." Spyro's smile faded somewhat away as he was reminded of the city, where the tiny yellow dragonfly hopefully was. "I really miss Sparx. I really hope he's okay, as well as the guardians." "I'm sure they're fine, Spyro. I'm sure that they are waiting at us at Warfang." Spyro nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right… Well, here's a red gem." He tossed the red gem to Cynder. "Let's fix that wound before it gets any worse."

**Author's note:**

There you go! The next chapter, this one is a lot longer than the previous one. There will be longer chapters to come, so keep reading! R&R please :)


	5. Chapter 4: The past

**Chapter 4****: (The past)**

After recovering from the wounds and recharged their energy, they began walking up the river. "I haven't noticed before now, but it's beautiful up here" said Cynder as they walked past some small waterfalls where plants grew in small groups. "Yes, it's really beautiful." Spyro agreed that this was one of the most beautiful places he had seen; it even was even prettier than the valley of Avalar. They enjoyed the sight for a few more minutes while they listened to the animal sounds from all over the place, before continuing.

After walking for many hours, they finally reached the end of the valley, where they found a rather large lake. "This place wouldn't be a too bad place to setup a small camp" said Cynder. There were even some rocks that formed a perfect shelter from the wind, as well as supporting a fire to warm them up when the night was over them. "I'll get some wood that we can use as a fire" said Spyro, as he took off, searching for some dead branches. Cynder carried their equipment, or what they had collected while they walked up the river. They had found a plant formed like a bag which they used to carry their gems in. They had also found some food, not much, but it would provide some energy for them.

Cynder placed the bags next to the rocky wall before she lay down on the soft grass. 'If only I could remember…' she though, referring back to the battle with Malefor. She tried her hardest to remember back, but was only rewarded with a mild head-ache. The memory seemed to be lost in the passage of time… She stretched her wings just to do something while she waited for Spyro to return. Her wings had healed just fine, mostly because they were able to close the wound so fast. She didn't feel exhausted either, so she did an attempt of taking off from the ground. She flipped her wings once and twice, just to try them out. Then she jumped and flapped hard with her wings, shooting up into the air. 'So this is what it's like,' she though while she laughed. This was her first flight since the fall of Malefor. As she climbed higher, she began circling around the area. She spotted Spyro near some trees, breaking off branches as well as collecting some tinder. Cynder flew around for a few more minutes, enough to give her a nice view over the nearby area. They had walked more than thirty kilometers during those six hours. She looked back to the lake; she could just barely see it due to the mountain that was almost between them and the lake. The sun was just about to head down behind the mountain, so she began descending down to the campsite.

"I see your wings are healed." said Spyro when Cynder landed. "Yeah, I just had to fly; it's been so long since the last time now." Spyro only smiled at her comment. "When the sun is up tomorrow, we can fly up to the mountain to get a better view around us. Maybe we might be able to spot Warfang or the valley of Avalar from there." Cynder nodded. "I guess so. Well, we don't have anything else to do right now, do we? Let's get that fire up, its freezing cold now that the sun is behind the mountain."

As the night fell over them, the temperature dropped down to a chilling cold minus three degrees Celsius. Spyro had lit the fire, but it was still cold. At least they had been lucky with the camp; the wind blew around and over the rock formation. Cynder looked over at Spyro. His chest expanded and contracted as he breathed. He looked so peacefully now, unlike he had been like before they had entered Malefor's lair. Cynder looked into the fire as she tried to sleep, but a though bothered her. She tried to sleep, but was constantly reminded of what happened right after they entered.

_~Flashback~_

_As they entered the large door, they were met with an unpleasant, evil laughter. They dark master reveled himself to the two dragons. "At long last, my guests have arrived." he said. "Please, come in." As Spyro and Cynder walked past the large door, it closed itself with a large, hollow booming sound. "Such determination to get here… It seems we share other qualities besides out color." said Malefor. "No, I'm nothing like you!" replied Spyro. As Spyro said this, Malefor came closer to them. "Do you think so? Hmm… We'll get to that." he said as he walked around Spyro and Cynder. "Don't listen to him Spyro. Don't listen to anything he says." whispered Cynder. "You look so weary. Allow me to make you more comfortable." said Malefor as he removed the enhanced shackles they had around their necks. "There. That's better isn't it? It is the least I could do for you Cynder. After all, you've done so much for me." "You used her!" yelled Spyro. "I used her, she used you. What does it matter really?" said Malefor. Spyro got a confused look on his face. "What does he mean?" asked Spyro. Cynder bowed her head down in shame as Malefor said: "What? He doesn't know? Go on, tell him. You mustn't leave him in the dark…" "Tell me what?" asked Spyro. "How she lured you to the Well of Souls, how she tricked you into freeing me." said Malefor. "You're lying!" yelled Cynder. "Hmm… I find it peculiar how you've chosen to remember things. I can assure you, it was you who freed me, Spyro, and it was you who brought me back." He looked at Cynder. "And we have Cynder to thanks for that." he laughed._

_"Cynder, is this true?" asked Spyro Cynder. "No! I don't know… I don't know anymore…" said Cynder as she looked down. "Oh, I think you do. But perhaps you need a little nudge…" said the dark master as he let out a wave of energy. Immediately Cynder turned into the evil creature she had once been in the past. "Cynder!" Spyro yelled._

Cynder woke up as the sun shone in her eyes. She hadn't been able to get much sleep; her past was still haunting her. She still remembered all the horrible things she had done before Spyro had fought her in Convexity where he won, freeing her from the dark master. During the war with Malefor's armies, Cynder had fought with Malefor, killing thousands and destroying dozens of dozens of villages, spreading terror and horror everywhere. Even her name was hated, Cynder, the dark master's general, the terror of the skies. Everyone hated her, every single creature but one. It was Spyro who saved her, something she would never forget. If it wasn't for Spyro, she would still be lost somewhere, maybe dead. Her thoughts went back and forth, unable to settle down. She began to walk around. Her steps made Spyro wake up. "Up already?" he asked. "I'm not tired." she said. "I couldn't get more sleep, so I decided to go get some more logs for the fire." The fire had almost burned out and it was still cold. The sun hadn't heated up the mountain lake they had settled down next to. "Wait Cynder," Spyro said as Cynder was about to leave the protective shelter the rock formation created. "I can see that something's bothering you, Cynder. Can't you tell me what it is?" Spyro was worried; Cynder had been acting a bit strange before but never like this. Cynder looked at him, she knew he meant it in a good way, but it was just too painful for her to talk about it. "Please Spyro, not now…" she said as she went out. Spyro remained on the ground, not sure about what to do.

After a while, Cynder returned to Spyro, who was already up eating breakfast. "Hey Cynder, do you want something to eat?" he asked. "Yes, please" said Cynder. Spyro tossed her the food bag. "It's not much, so we'll have to find some more later." he said. Cynder ate the food that was left, and then they collected their equipment, before finally moving towards the mountain. "Shall we fly or walk?" asked Spyro, as he looked back to Cynder. "I don't know how smart it is to fly right after a meal." Cynder smiled. "I think we should walk to the mountain, then the sun will heat up the ground before we start, making it easier to fly." "Alright! Time to go." Spyro said.

They decided to head to the left side of the mountain, where the mountain wall wasn't too steep. "It's about five kilometers to the mountain, so this is going to take an hour or two." said Cynder. "I guess that we don't have to walk all the way to the mountain, since the sun seems to be quite warm today." Spyro nodded. "You're right about that. It feels like a really warm day. I really need it, I'm still freezing cold."

They continued their walk past the lake, stopping to drink a little and enjoy the warmth of the sun and the scenery. This lake wasn't too different from the first lake they had encountered. The color of the lake was crystal clear azure, with few ripples. Everything seemed so strange to both Cynder and Spyro, almost as if nothing was real. The vegetation hadn't changed much, but some shrubs replaced the ferns lower in the valley. They kept walking for half an hour before they came to a large ravine. "Well, there's no walking around this one…" said Cynder. Spyro walked up to the edge. "It looks like this ravine is bottomless, so try to not fall down." he said. "Ha ha, very funny." laughed Cynder. "That was almost funny. Come on, let's fly across it. Besides, we're so close to the mountain that we can fly all the way from here." "Okay, let's fly!" said Spyro as he jumped into the air and flapped with his wings, bringing him higher up in the air.

Down in the bottom of the valley, a creature had discovered the footsteps of the two dragons. It stopped up, examining the tracks, before finally looking up the valley. It began moving again, following the tracks in a faster pace than before…

**Author's note:**

Longest chapter so far, and the chapters are still increasing in length ;) I'll toss in a surprise for the two dragons soon, and just who and _what_ is this creature? Read to find out!


	6. Chapter 5: Where are we?

**Chapter 5: (Where are we?)**

Spyro and Cynder kept up their pace and reached the mountain top after two more hours had passed. By now the air has hot and rose up to the skies. "These updrafts are really handy!" said Spyro as he climbed even higher. "We're almost at the same height as the mountain now." They leaned a bit forward, turning their speed upwards to forward momentum, speeding up as they glided towards the top. "About three hundred meters left." said Spyro. "We'll get there in no…" A gust of wind threw him away. "… Time." The wind grew stronger the closer they came. "Why did it suddenly start blowing like this?" They pushed themselves forward, but it felt like for each time they flapped with their wings, they were blown back twice as much as they gained. After a painfully exhausting ten minutes, they finally reached the mountain, about hundred meters below the top. "Well, at least we're here. The top is right up there," said Cynder and pointed. They looked around as they walked up, hoping to catch a small glimpse of Warfang or any other know place, with no luck… "Where are we?" asked Spyro as he examined the horizon.

The mood of the two young dragons dropped, they had no idea about where they were, nor did they know if anyone else was still alive. If that wasn't bad enough, they had also stirred up the hive when it came to the tribe they met not long after they woke up. They could only hope that they weren't chased by those creatures.

The two young dragons carefully walked down the steep, rocky mountainside. The rocks were loose and slippery. On the right side of them, a three hundred meter high drop waited for them, with winds that would blow them right into the wall, breaking at least every bone in the body twice. On the left side, the decent was much less steep, but most rocks were loose. "Tell me again, why can't we simply fly down this huge rock-pile?!" yelled Spyro through the howling wind. "The wind will catch us and who knows where it'll take us. Most likely it'll slam us right into the ground or something like that." yelled Cynder back. They struggled for hours just to get to the trees where the wind was much less intense. "Whew, that was fun." said Spyro. "Yeah, let's never do that again!" said Cynder. "What direction do we take now? We can't stay here forever." she asked. "I think I saw some ruins of some ancient city or temple in the distance, we could head over there to investigate." replied Spyro. "Well, we don't have much else to do, and it's not night before another five hours. Let's go!" said Cynder. They began walking north, where Spyro had spotted the ruins.

Somewhere else, the creature had followed their footsteps. Since it had found them, it had run all the way up to the lake where Cynder and Spyro had spent the night. The creature quickly orientated itself, noticing the surroundings. It carefully examined every possible hiding spot before moving on to the open field that separated it from the shelter Spyro and Cynder had used from itself. It hummed with satisfaction as it approached the camp. It revealed a bow and some arrows. One arrow was placed on the bow string, ready to be fired. A sword was attached to the creatures left side, easy to reach when it was needed. The creature finally entered the camp, not sure what to expect. Quickly, it checked every corner to make sure nothing was there. It seemed a bit disappointed and turned towards the burned-out fire and the remains of the food left behind by Spyro and Cynder. The tracks found inside the shelter were about one night old, but when it noticed the tracks outside, they were no more than three hours old. Quickly, it ran after the two dragons, hoping to catch up with them.

As Spyro and Cynder continued their walk through the forest, clouds had gathered above them. A few raindrops fell down on them, signaling that the clouds was about to release the water they had gathered. More and more raindrops fell down, closer and closer. It poured down with water, turning the ground wet and slippery. "Great! This is exactly what we needed…" said Spyro. Just when he finished saying that, he lost his footing and fell face first in a small puddle that had just been filled up. Cynder only laughed, only to have Spyro moving his paw through the water and throwing the water at Cynder. Cynder came closer and reached a paw to pull Spyro up. Spyro grabbed it and tried to stand up, but just before he got up, Cynder slapped her tail down into the puddle and half of the puddle splashed right into Spyro's face. "Now we're even." laughed Cynder. "Just you wait!" smiled Spyro as he spitted out the water that went into his mouth. "You'll have it back when you least expect it." "Should I be worried now?" laughed Cynder. "When it comes to water, you're like a fish on land." She joked. "Sparx told you that? Ha ha, very funny… Oh, just you wait. Well, come on, we should keep moving. It's still a long way to go."

They struggled to get up the hills, and after some painfully exhausting minutes, they succeeded. Just as they came over the top, they got to view the land ahead. It was nothing like that they thought it was. A large area of the land they had seen from the mountain had turned to deep, swampy terrain. The entire area had literally changed in half an hour; so much rain had been dropped from the clouds. The swamp had to be at least ten kilometers across and wide, there was no way that they would be able to cross it. A closer look at the area revealed that it was able to cross it, but it would be hard and not really worth it. The water had gathered in large, deep holes that were ten to hundred meters long but ten meters wide at the most. Many plants were adapted to these unfriendly environments. "We can't cross this swamp, so we have to walk around it." said Cynder. "If we follow the edge of the swamp over to the higher ground we can see over there…" She pointed to a barely visible hill far away. "… Then we can also get an overview of the surrounding area." Spyro nodded. "We'll get to that hill before the night falls upon us if we hurry up. We probably have three hours left before its pitch black. Since it's about 20 kilometers around the swamp, we'll have to move fast. We can't fly either, with this wind and rain." he said. "Okay, but can you take this bag? Those gems get heavy when you carry them for some hours." Cynder said as she handed Spyro the bag. "Well, I suppose I could…" said Spyro as they continued. After walking for half an hour, the sky cleared up and the sun shone down on them. "Ah, this was great!" said Spyro relived. After being washed throughout at least twice, the sun was a welcomed change. "Enjoy it fast, it won't last." said Cynder after she looked up at the clouds. "How do you know?" asked Spyro. Cynder looked at him, her green emerald eyes seemed to sparkle in the light from the sun. "More flying experience?" she said. Spyro looked at her before he though over that. "Oh, right…"

…

Back at the creature, it had also problems with the weather. It had reached the ravine that Spyro and Cynder had flown over when they flew to the mountain. The creature let go of a sigh when the depth of the ravine was revealed. The ravine was also too wide to jump across, so the creature began to walk to the left, searching for a way to cross the ravine. The creature walked for about half an hour, tired of climbing across large rocks and jumping across holes filled with rainwater, when it noticed a huge tree had fallen across the ravine. With nothing to lose, the creature quickly climbed up the trunk of the tree. The rain had made the entire tree really slippery, so this was a very risky thing to do. As the creature struggled to keep the balance, a sudden gust of wind blew. With no chance to time to react, the creature lost its balance, making a catastrophic move, stepping on a slippery piece of moss. The creature fell over and began to slide down the large trunk, desperately trying to get a grip. Without thinking, it grabbed its sword with both hands and jammed it in the tree. There the creature hanged, unable to climb back up. After about five minutes of hanging there, the rain subsided and the sun reached the creature. Exhausted as it was, the sun seemed to restore some energy, and with a mighty pull, the creature jammed his hand into the bark, grabbing on to anything it could get a hold on. Just before the sun disappeared, the creature managed to climb all the way up again and finally crossed the ravine. The creature released a sigh of relief, and began to walk towards the mountain where the last tracks he had seen pointed to. But before the creature had walked too far, some fresh tracks pointed to opposite direction. Yup, this was fresh dragon footprints, so the creature did a quick turn and followed those tracks instead, hoping to catch up with the two dragons before the next day.

Spyro and Cynder had finally reached the hills on the other side of the swamp. The hills weren't as small as they though, they were large enough to hold many caves. "I see a cave over there!" said Cynder as the rain picked up again. The wind gathered its strength as well. "Let's get there fast!" yelled Spyro as the wind hammered them. The bad weather had gone even worse, now turning to a storm. Lightning struck the ground in the distance, the flashes blinded Spyro and the sound was higher than the sound of the ancient Golem's rocky hand slamming to the ground. A new lightning lit up the sky, giving just enough light to see the cave entrance. "Quickly, get inside!" managed Spyro to say as the wind was about to blow them away. Spyro got inside just seconds after Cynder. They could hear the wind howling outside and the roar of the rain. It was almost like they were next to a waterfall. "It's going to be hard to get any sleep tonight…" mumbled Spyro. They checked to cave and made sure that no other creatures lurked within the shadows, then they piled up and tried to get some sleep.

Three hours later, Cynder woke up because she heard a sound outside. She opened her eyes and looked out. She heard the sound again, something was definitely walking outside. Judging by the sound and the shaking of the ground every time she heard the sound, this had to be something large. She stood up, accidentally waking Spyro in the process. "Cynder…? What's going on?" he mumbled. "Shhh, something's out there." she whispered. Spyro got up on his paws. "What?" he asked. Another sound was heard and the ground shook again. "That didn't sound like an ape..." Spyro said. "Should we go out to check what it is?" he asked nervously. "I don't know, but if we stay here and that _thing_ tries to enter this cave, we have nowhere to hide." whispered Cynder. "Okay, I'll check it out. Wait here." said Spyro as he walked towards the exit. Spyro reached the opening, signaling she should come closer. Spyro walked a bit further out to get a better look. Cynder came closer, but just before she caught up with Spyro, a gigantic claw slammed down of Spyro before he had the chance to react. "SPYRO!" yelled Cynder as the claw lifted Spyro up into the air, followed by the terrified screams from Spyro.

**Author's note:**

Got to love cliffhangers, or what? :P  
I want to thank those who have read all the way up here and commented, I really appreciated it :)

Now I'll have to ask you, how do you want me to update this story? Right now I'm writing and publishing one 2,000 word chapter each day, I'm thinking of turning this into a 10,000 word chapter once every week. I'd like to keep it the way it is now, but what do **you** think? Also, if you spot any typo or wrong name/location/etc, please notify me about this. That way I can keep improving :)

R&R please, suggestions are usefull too ;)

**WARNING!  
From the next chapter, there will be scenes with blood and gore. I do not recommend that you read further if you don't feel mature enough for moderate to light strong scenes.**


	7. Chapter 6: Black as the night

**Chapter 6: (Black as the night)**

Cynder quickly ran outside. A lightning bolt spread out across the sky, lighting up the scene. The sight before Cynder was gruesome, a massive creature with a size that was at least fifteen meters tall and ten meters long stood there. Three long poles that looked like legs came out from a large, flat ellipsoid that resembled a body black as the night. One of the legs came out behind and the two other came from the front end. All three legs had three segments and each segment had many of these tiny, gray, nasty and smelly hairs. Cynder could bet her wings on that they were poisonous.

Two more large things came from this large creature. Cynder let her eyes follow the arms where they ended in a massive claw, big enough to tear a tree up from the ground. Another lightning lit up the scene. Spyro was squirmed in the creature's claw, desperately trying to free himself. "Cynder!" he yelled. He had noticed something else that Cynder couldn't see from the ground. The creature moved its claw closer to its body, more precisely its head. Cynder moved around to the other side of the creature, looking for a weak spot. The area was lit up by another lightning. Cynder looked up just in time; the sight in front of her was terrifying. The creature moved its claw closer and closer to its head, now Cynder understood why. The creature had a mouth with the size of its own claws, large enough for both Spyro and Cynder to fit there, with more room to spare. "Cynder, please get me out of here!" screamed Spyro. Cynder could hear that he was frightened, almost scared to death. Time seemed to slow down for Cynder. She quickly evaluated the situation; the monster was about to eat Spyro, they were both tired. The rain was still pouring down and the wind blew hard. Because it was night, it was also pitch black. Cynder ran as fast as she could to one of the front legs of the monster, spraying it with acidic poison, hoping the acid would corrode through the monsters hard shells that formed a perfect armor.

She quickly jumped to the side as the leg swung towards her. She barely escaped the dangerous hairs as they whistled past her. "Spyro!" she yelled. "Hit it in the mouth!" He did as she said and fired a fireball right into the monster's mouth. Just before the fireball made contact, the monster closed its mouth. The fireball exploded, tearing a large hole in the shell where it had hit. The monster roared in pain, releasing the grip around Spyro just a little bit. Spyro took advantage of this and crawled up, out of the claw. Just before he managed to free half his body, the monster closed its claw again, this time so hard that Spyro couldn't breathe and pushed his bones to the breaking point. He tried to summon another fireball but failed. He tried to gasp for air again, but the monster held him with an iron grip, not allowing him to breath.

Meanwhile, Cynder had sprayed acid over the other two legs as well, hoping that the monster would collapse. She ran back to the first leg and blasted the open hole with shadow. The monster moved the leg so fast that Cynder had virtually no time to react. She was hit dead on and was kicked ten meters away, landing at the edge of the water. She quickly got up and ran back. Spyro tried to fire another fireball, and this time he managed to find enough strength to fire it. The monster was hit right under its left eye. Again, it released a horribly loud roar, temporarily deafening Spyro. The creature released its grip once more, now Spyro managed to free himself. He dropped down six meters and landed hard on the wet ground. He tried to gasp for air and crawled slowly away from the monster. Cynder rushed to him, but she was too slow. The monster reached down for Spyro again with both claws. Spyro fired an earth missile into one of the claws, cracking a shell. The monster hesitated for a little second, enough to give Spyro a chance to recover from the fall. He tried to crawl further away from the claws, but without success. Cynder was now only ten meters away, but the monster had picked Spyro up again, this time with both its claws. It held Spyro so that his chest and head was firmly locked in place in one claw while the other half of Spyro was held in the other claw. Then this massive creature began to pull in each direction, trying to tear Spyro in half.

Spyro cried out, but the wind almost drowned the sound. The pain was unbearable, and soon after a few scales gave after for the enormous pressure and was split in half. Cynder was horrified, but she reacted quickly. She aimed, and then quickly launched herself up into the air. The wind blew her in the way she had predicted. She ended up right in front the monster's eyes. "You're in big trouble now!" she said as she pumped acid into the eyes. The monster backed away, but didn't get far. The back leg broke in half where Cynder had earlier left her acidic poison. The monster roared in pain and dark, yellow liquid oozed out of the wound. The monster lead over the front legs and they collapsed as well, breaking where the dissolved shells once had been. As the monster tried to get back up on the stumps, Spyro was released. He fell down to the ground like a ragdoll, he remained there motionless. "No! Spyro!" Cynder landed and rushed to him. She grabbed him and dragged him away from the squirming monster. Blood trickled out from the large gashes in Spyro's hide. Many scales had been stretched beyond what they could take and had separated from each other. Cynder got Spyro half-way back to the cave before she had this eerie feeling. She turned around to see the monster, standing there ready to kill. The monster moved on the stumps, kicking away the sections that had broken off. "No, it's not possible…" gasped Cynder. She dragged Spyro as fast as she could, but she realized that this was hopeless. She had to either leave Spyro to die and save herself or she had to fight the monster and risk her own life. She didn't have to think for a long time.

Even though the monster had lost a segment of each leg, was blind on one eye and burned in the side from Spyro's fireballs, it still refused to give up its prey. It lunged for Cynder who quickly rolled to the side, blasting the monster with fear waves. In return she was rewarded with a bone-breaking strike from the creature's claws. Cynder could feel that her rear leg had been critically damaged. She was almost immobilized from the intense pain caused by the injury. A quick look revealed that something was badly damaged, her foot was twisted in an unnaturally way and blood started to pour out of a long gash along her leg. She got up on her three other paws and jumped to the side just in time as the monster tried to crush her under its damaged leg. Cynder tried her fear waves again, straight in the monster's face. She quickly realized that this didn't do anything, so she changed tactics. She tried her acid poison again, at the same time the monster lunged out for her. Cynder didn't see it coming through the toxic cloud she had just created and took the full punch in her ribs. An explosion of pain filled her entire body as the sharp hairs on the monster penetrated Cynder's scales. Cynder cried out in pain when the monster slammed one of the claws over Cynder's back, knocking her down into the wet ground. It picked her up by the neck and moved the open mouth closer…

Cynder was barely conscious, mostly due to the poisonous hairs that pumped venom into her body. Her mind constantly shifted from conscious to unconscious in an unpredictable pattern. She was just a few meters away from certain death now, unable to comprehend with this. A few memories passed through her head. Memories she had forgotten or been hidden behind other horrible events. A memory from when she was only a few weeks, she had been caught by the Apes from stealing some food. She was beaten by them, hard and for a long time. She blacked out, waking up the next day in a small iron cage in a dark cell. The same apes returned to hand out some more of the same to Cynder. As they opened the cage, she bit one of them hard on the hand. The ape she bit used the other hand and grabbed her by the neck, breathing slowly. The ape's breath would be enough to kill. Slowly it said "I'll teach you what happens when you try to steal from me, biting won't help at all. If fact, now I think…" Cynder woke up again, almost as if she had been sleeping. She looked forward, not sure about where she was. Then she remembered, the monster! The monster's teeth were just a meter away now. Without thinking, Cynder summoned all her energy and focused into one though; ending this nightmare. The storm that raged now was nothing compared to what Cynder managed to create. All the pain she had suffered; all the horrible events she had experienced, the suffering and the memory of Spyro lying there, slowly bleeding to death, all this was released all at once. A massive blast with her wind element blasted the monster down into the muddy ground. Before the monster hit the ground, another wave of piercing, screaming sound, her fear wave, cut into the monster and left red marks where the waves had been concentrated. She finished with an acid cloud that filled the entire surface of the monster, disintegrating every part of the shells and dissolving what was under the scales. The monster fell over, with a dying, screeching sound. Exhausted after the fury, Cynder fell to the ground. She hit the ground hard. Even though her back left leg was badly injured and her body was filled with poison, she managed to crawl up the Spyro. He wasn't conscious and his breath was weak. "Spyro…" sobbed Cynder. "I'm so sorry…" She closed her eyes. Some tears fell down her cheek and splashed on Spyro's already rain wet face. The rain had washed away most of the dirt on Spyro's side, revealing the injuries. A few large gashes that been created when his scales had been ripped apart, his wings was twisted and his tail was bend so far that the bones had broken in two places. "Please Spyro! Wake up!" Cynder pleaded. She didn't get any responds, just a long, whistling sound as the wind blew into the cave. Then, an idea popped into Cynder's head. 'What if… Yes, that should work. It have to work; at least I have to try' she though.

She grabbed Spyro with one paw and used her tail to lift him up. She was careful so she wouldn't cut him on her tail blade. With her two other paws, she crawled up to the cave. The pain she felt was intense, the fact that sometimes fell over her most likely broken paw didn't make things better. At last, she reached the mouth of the cave. She left Spyro there as she walked to the bag they had with them. She dragged it back to Spyro and picked out a red gem.

She hoped that this would be enough. She could feel the energy inside the gem. She leaded that energy straight into Spyro, hoping it would not be too late. A small, dim, red light began to form around Spyro's body. The light seemed to gather in some of the gashes along Spyro's sides, closing them just a little bit. Just as soon as it had begun, the light faded away. Cynder quickly pulled out another red gem and repeated the process. With this second gem, some more gashes were closed and the color returned to some of Spyro's scales. His purple color became clearer through the now gray scales. A third red gem was activated. Cynder peeked into the bag, only five more gems were left, and she had no idea about how much more Spyro needed.

Cynder watched over Spyro for the next hours, cleaning his remaining wounds and treated her own. She stabilized his tail and wings so they would heal properly. She used a final red gem, and Spyro had finally returned to his normal shape. He was still unconscious, but he would survive. Now that he was no longer in a life-threatening situation, Cynder was overrun with fatigue, and as the storm kept raging, she fell asleep.

**Author's note:**

There it is! The first fighting scene. So what do you think about it?  
Soon I'll introduce someone new, maybe not in the next chapter, but soon. To figure out who it is, keep reading ;)

R&R please, suggestions are welcomed as well :D

**This chapter has been changed due to heavy blood and gore.**


	8. Chapter 7: Tracks

**Chapter 7 (Tracks)**

The storm was finally over and the moon shone down into the cave. The night passed and turned into day, finally some signs of life came from the cave. A few spiders crawled in the light, trying to warm up in the sun's heat. Deeper in the cave, some rodents came out from the small holes in the still soaked dirt. They began their daily routines, getting out into the sun and searching for food. Some of the sunlight was reflected by some purple scales. A small twitch caused a tiny movement in the tail. Just after that, a paw moved ever so slightly, just barely noticeable. But the rodents still noticed this and move further away from the dragon. They didn't want to be close when he woke up.

Another hour passed before another tiny movement occurred. This time the eyelids moved slightly. Spyro partially opened his eyes; he wasn't able to see much. His head pounded and his vision was blurred. "Cynder…" he mumbled. He turned around to face Cynder. She was lying on the ground as well, exhausted from the last night. "Cynder, please wake up" Spyro moved his paw over to Cynder and pulled himself closer to her. He could see that she was breathing, when he tried to listen, he could hear it as well. She was still alive, just sleeping. He noticed that the bag they had stored gems in had been opened and was located not too far from them. With an effort, he pulled himself over there. His paw reached the inside and poured to contents on the ground. He was surprised of what was left; only two red gems remained. Then he managed to remember what they had fought against last night. He grabbed two green gems. The energy floated around inside the gems, he could feel it. He concentrated about this energy, absorbing what he could from one of the gems. He could feel the flow of energy from the gem into his body. The gem dissolved into nothing as soon as the energy had been absorbed, freeing Spyro from the iron grip the fatigue had on him.

He got on his paws and walked back to Cynder. He knew she had somehow saved him, he could tell that much. The dragging marks on the ground and the small puddle of blood told him just how badly injured he had been. He followed the drops of blood on the ground and got out of the cave. The area was totally different in sunlight, now everything shined and reflected light. He looked over the swamp, in the distance he could see the mountain they had climbed a day ago. He looked over to the left. His mouth opened in astonishment, he could hardly believe what he saw. The monster from the last night had almost dissolved completely; large chunks of black and white chunks were spread out. Some parts had a green, nasty tint to it. Spyro guessed that this had to be Cynder's work, her poison often lead to such discoloring. Even though the monster wasn't whole, Spyro still couldn't believe just how big this thing was.

Meanwhile, Cynder woke up. She reached out her paws to where she had places Spyro during the night. When she couldn't find him, she opened her eyes. He was nowhere in the cave, so she got up on her paws. She noticed the red and green gem that Spyro had left behind. She grabbed the green one and absorbed the energy and got up on her paws, then walked out of the cave. She saw Spyro stand there, looking out on the horizon. "Spyro!" she said, happy to see him. He turned around and smiled. "Good morning!" he said. "I thought you wanted to sleep a little bit longer, so I tried to not wake you up." "I wouldn't mind if you woke me up. I think I've been sleeping for far too long now." she said. "By the way, how are you feeling?" "I think I'm okay, thanks to you, Cynder." Cynder smiled back. "I'd say we're even now, don't you think?" Spyro nodded. "It's a great thing that we watch each other's backs. Well, I noticed that you used many of the gems. I… I can't think of what would happen if you didn't…" Spyro looked down into the ground; his eyes began to water a little bit. "Spyro, what's in the past remains there. The most important is that we're both okay. Let us focus on what's ahead rather than what we have gone trough." "Yeah, you're right… We should keep heading north; we won't find any food or more equipment here."

_~Seven hours ago~_

_As the rain grew heavier and the wind more powerful, the creature realized that continuing would be too dangerous. A quick look around told the creature that there were three possible locations for setting up a camp. One was the rocks near the edge of the forest, though it didn't give much protection against the rain. The trees would provide an excellent location to avoid the dangerous creatures and monsters that lurked around, but the wind and rain would meet about no resistance. The last option was a tiny cave. Minimal amount of wind and rain would get in there, but it would be a dangerous place. The decision was made; the cave. Silently the creature slid inside the shadows of the cave, readying the sword and tried to rest._

_A loud screech was heard through the night. The sword was drawn in an instant, ready to be used on any threat. Just half a minute later, a massive roar tore through the storm. The creature was up on its legs in less than three seconds. "En edustor…" it said with a dark voice. Judging by the voice, it had to be a male. He turned his head in the direction the sound came from, or at least what it sounded like. The wind distorted every sound so it was close to impossible to precisely estimate where the sound came from._

_The creature realized that he would not be safe where he was if an edustor would come to him. He remembered an encounter with those monsters in his earlier days, many, many years ago. He had lost one of his companions during that attack. The rest of the group had barely survived, and those who did, never fully recovered. Another cry sent the creature back to the present time. He grabbed his weapons and ran further into the forest. The edustor would never enter a forest, due to its sheer size. It lived only on the plains and swamps, but it happened that it would cross forests when it was cornered. Only rumors of stories of creatures the edustor was afraid of had been heard. No one had ever been able to see such foul, monstrous creatures and live to tell the tale. He ran for an hour, before coming to a halt. The rain had begun to decline and the wind decreased in strength. He didn't hear more from the edustor, so he returned to the swamp, hoping that the dragon tracks hadn't vanished in the storm. Before he got far, he decided to set up a new camp. It was late and he was tired, so he looked for a campsite. He found one, this time in a tree. The branches grew up and above the tree, forming a perfect ceiling. He quickly fell asleep._

_~Present time~_

The creature had woken up half an hour ago, quickly moving towards the swamp. The night had been silent for many hours, so he didn't worry about large monsters at the minute. As he ran along, he picked up some fruits. No need to run on an empty stomach. He reached the swamp again. As he searched for the tracks, he used the time to rest for a minute or two. He searched some more, but to his disappointment, he found no tracks. Disappointed, he kicked the ground and went to the right along the swamp's edge. He looked down on the ground; suddenly he was back on track! The two dragons had walked here and walked over a small section of the swamp. The tracks were barely visible, so he had to concentrate hard to follow them.

…

Spyro and Cynder had already climbed the hill. From there they could see the temple they were heading for. "We could fly from here, or we could walk. What do you think?" asked Spyro. "I'd say we walk. We might be able to find some food and some more equipment. We lost almost everything this night." Cynder replied. 'We could have lost our lives too…' she thought for herself, thinking back to that night. "I guess you're right. So the ground it is!" said Spyro. They walked down the hill and into the forest that lied in front of them.

A low, rumbling noise was heard. Cynder looked over at Spyro with a puzzled look on her face. "Was that you?" she asked. "I guess so…" said Spyro. "I haven't eaten since we left the camp yesterday." "It sounds like some serious starvation going on there. We should find some food so we don't starve to death."

Spyro and Cynder decided to split up so they would be able to find food faster. The forest around them crawled with life, but most of the animals around were too quick or too good at hiding themselves. Other were obviously poisonous, those were brightly colored and was really visible against the brown ground. Then Spyro spotted something. "Ha! You won't be running away." he said. He approached his prey, one step at a time. He picked up the red, orange and oval fruit. 'I never thought I'd 'see you again.' Spyro thought. He had found one of his favorite foods from his younger days, when he still lived with the dragonflies he called his family. Old memories came back as he chewed on the fruit. One time he and Sparx had gone out in the swamp he grew up in, searching for those fruits. He remembered Sparx complaining all the way, saying something like "We'll never be able to find those fruits, we don't even know where to look." and "Do we even know what those fruits looks like?" Right after that one fruit fell down for the tree it grew from and hit Sparx head on, pushing him down into the mud. Spyro quickly moved the fruit from Sparx where he lied in the mud. "Mommy, we're home…" he mumbled. Spyro couldn't resist laughing; he never thought he'd see this.

A branch snapping to his left brought him back to the present days. A movement in the bush caught his attention. He could hear that this was something dangerous. The creature hiding behind that bush snarled silently, just so Spyro barely heard it. Spyro took a cautious step towards the bush, trying to see what he stood up against. He had this eerily feeling, something had to be wrong. Trusting his instincts, he took a few steps backwards. The creature jumped out from behind its cover and hid behind another bush. All Spyro saw was a black line, amazed by the speed of this foe. "Cynder!" he yelled, trying to get her over there so he wouldn't be alone. The creature moved again and jumped behind another bush, still not revealing its body. Spyro walked sideways around the bush, hoping to catch a glimpse of it. He still felt that something was horribly wrong. 'Where is she?' he though. "Cynder, get over here, fast!" he yelled again. The dense forest seemed to close in on Spyro; the vegetation almost crawled towards him. The creature finally revealed itself. It had about the same size as Spyro, just black and without wings. Along its back, seven long and stiff spikes pointed straight out. The four legs were long and filled with large, powerful muscles, capable of launching the body at dangerously high speeds towards a target. All four feet ended in five, long, sharp and bright gray claws, capable of tearing up scales and skin with almost no effort at all.

But the creature only stood there, looking at Spyro. At first Spyro wondered why it did that, something like this was quite unusual. Then he remembered something, a tactic the apes used against him three years ago, when he fought to free Volteer, the Electric Guardian from Dante's Freezer. One ape got his attention, while two other sneaked up behind him. Spyro's eerie feeling proved to be correct; he never saw it coming, the creature jumped on his back from behind. He could feel the sharp claws ripping into his back and the long teeth sinking into his muscles. His legs failed him as the creature went for his neck, trying to end him right away.

* * *

**Author's note:**

I'm sorry for not updating yesterday, I had a writer's block. I'll try to keep up the pace, but I'm a little busy with other things, especially the game I'm creating. I'll try to have an update ready by Monday, but can't promise anything.

Please review :D

**This chapter has been rewritten due to heavy blood and gore.**


	9. Chapter 8: Old memories

**Chapter 8: (Old memories)**

Cynder had heard Spyro. She dropped what she had carried and took to the skies, hoping to find him faster from above. They had split apart just ten minutes ago, and he already needed help. 'Typical Spyro, I can't leave him alone for a minute without him getting into some mess…' she though. A quick look ahead told her that the vegetation would be too dense for her to land, so she went down where they had parted. "Spyro!" she called out. The forest remained silent, except a few animal sounds here and there. The wind blew silently along her scales, bringing a few leafs with it. "Spyro, where are you?" she called out again. Suddenly she felt cold, something very, very bad had happened, again. She noticed Spyro's tracks and ran along them, hoping that she would find him before it was too late. She ignored everything in her way as she ran. The smaller animals ran out of her path as she rushed past them. Then she saw it, a purple mess lied next to a small bush. "Spyro!" she cried and ran to him. She didn't see anything that could have caused such damage. Long gashes ran along his back, his neck was badly injured and his wings was broken and twisted in ways Cynder never thought was possible. The blood that came out of his wounds had formed a red, viscous puddle beneath him. Cynder didn't hesitate a second, she immediately got one red gem out of the bag. She felt the energy; it was just the same as when the huge monster had attacked them the last night. But this time Spyro was in a worse condition, and they had only two red gems this time. There was no way he would be able to walk out of this mess, at least not without help. Just before Cynder was about to use the second red gem, she felt something dark behind her.

Without looking back, she jumped to the side as the black creature swooped past her and Spyro, missing them both by just a claw-length. She turned around just in time to see the other creature jump towards her. She sidestepped and used her tail to slice the side of the creature. But it moved so fast she was unable to dodge the attack completely, long red stripes appeared along her scales where the claws hit her. The creature seemed to take quite some damage from the wound she inflicted on it; it landed hard on its feet and collapsed. It tried to get up, but fell back down again. It then slowly stopped moving, lying there motionless. As Cynder got back up on her feet, the other black creature rammed her legs hard. She collapsed and felt muscles being stretched to their limit, some of her bones bended so far that they could snap any time. The creature landed on top of her, pinning her tail under herself. She blocked the creatures punch with her paw. It tried to slice her unprotected throat, but she kicked the creature with her hind legs, kicking it off her. She got back on her paws, and so did it. They now stood face to face, circling each other while looking for weaknesses. Cynder noticed that the creature seemed to halt on one leg, some blood trickled out from a wound, so she took aim for this leg. Then she lunged for it, but she realized the mistake. The creature had faked the halting; now it used Cynder's momentum to its own advantage. It sidestepped her and struck her side, hard. Cynder landed on the ground, coughing some blood and gasping for air. Her ribs had absorbed a lot of the strike, but her lungs had taken damage from the punch. The creature walked slowly over to her, ready to finish her. Cynder rolled over so she could see the creature. It had this smirk on its face. It snarled and bared its teeth. The bright yellow teeth were longer than Cynder though, long enough to bite through her chest and to the spine if she allowed it to. The creature leaped towards her. As a last resort, she lifted her hind legs up and held her front paws in front of her. Apparently the creature didn't expect this; it tried to flinch but was too late. With full force it rammed its softer belly tissue against Cynder's talons. The speed the creature had made it bounce off of Cynder paws, tossing it into the bushes behind her.

She gasped, forcing air into her lungs. The pain was intense at first, but subsided for each breath. She turned around to look for the creature that was launched into the bushes. It was nowhere to be seen, no sounds could be heard either. She looked for the first creature that had attacked her. All she found was the pool of blood where it once was. Cynder couldn't see or hear anything else; neither did she feel any darkness. She rushed to Spyro, fortunately the gem Cynder managed to use before she was attacked had sealed up most of the wounds, but Spyro's problem was now the damage on the inside, where Cynder couldn't do anything. The second and last red gem was used, fixing the worst of Spyro's neck. "Spyro, why do you always get into such trouble…?" Cynder slowly said. "I can't leave you alone for one minute without you almost getting yourself killed. Even after all we've been through, when the fighting was supposed to end, when all the evilness was supposed to end; here we are again, fighting against those beasts." She dried her eyes with a paw. "I could feel that those creatures were evil, I felt the darkness." She was sad, worried about how they would end up. Surely one of them would suffer an immense loss soon if they kept getting into trouble like this. 'Maybe there is something even worse than Malefor out there…' she though as she lifted Spyro up like she had done the night before. Then she began to walk towards the temple. Slowly at first, but when she began to notice that the forest cleared up, she picked up her pace.

_~ One hour ago~_

_Back at the swamp, the tracks after the two young dragons were barely visible. After running for some hours, he was really tired so he decided to take a break. A small rock was quite well-placed, right next to a small stream running from the forest and into the swamp. He drank some of the cold, refreshing water, stilling his thirst. A small butterfly flew past him, the beautiful pattern formed two dragon's eyes. The colors were sky blue and fire red with a hint of dirt brown. He continued looking at the butterfly as it passed him and landed on a yellow flower. The butterfly folded it wings on its back, drinking the flower nectar. The sun shone down on the flower, it looked like it sparkled. Some dew still hadn't vaporized yet. The creature lifted his head and looked ahead. He could see some hills about five kilometers away, he knew that the dragons he was chasing had been there. The butterfly took off and began its journey to the next stop and so did he._

~Present time~

He had moved fast and reached the hills in about one hour's time. He had heard someone yell out from the forest, but he could not make out the words. Right after that another cry was heard before it went silent again.

He noticed a small opening in the hill, so he walked towards that cave. He had lost the tracks; the ground here was much more eroded after the rain, so the tracks had been washed away. But he noticed that the cave had been used. Blood trails in the entrance revealed that a violent battle had been fought here. He thought back to the night before, during the storm he had heard many sounds through the storm. Now there was no doubt that an edustor had been here. Just thirty meters from the cave entrance, there the remaining of the decomposing body of the edustor lay. The huge beast had been dissolved into tiny fragments by now. He barely recognized the pieces from the corpse; the memory of his encounter with an edustor so many years ago came forth, almost bringing him back to those days. The details were hazy, but the horrors he felt and the truly terrible sight of one of his fellows being ripped to shreds in the claws of the edustor pained him. The rest of the group, the seven that still lived, barely made it out alive. If they hadn't been nearby that mountain passage, they would surely been killed every single one of them. The plains had pretty much been a death trap, they knew that from the beginning, but they had to take that risk.

_~Flashback~_

_They had just escaped from the edustor and hidden in the passage. The edustor didn't follow them, but released its rage outside, not able to get them. It pounded the mountain, knocking loose huge lumps of rock, violently falling down towards the group. The rocks triggered a chain reaction, knocking loose even more rocks, forming a rockslide. Panicked, the group ran further in, hoping to escape the falling debris. Just a hundred meters away, they could see a cave opening in the mountain wall. The rocks fell closer to them; one fell right next to them, soaking them with dust and pebbles. They barely reached the cave and threw themselves in, just twelve seconds later the entrance was completely sealed by the debris. Now they had another problem, they couldn't see anything. They had no light at all._

_~Present day~_

He entered the cave where the two dragons had been just an hour ago. The red blood had now turned dark red as it coagulated. A green gem lay on the ground, along with a plant bag. He picked the gem and examined them. He had seen those before and knew that dragons somehow extracted energy from them, but he had no idea about how they did this. He put the gem away into his own bag where he kept the essential supplies as well as equipment, so he could examine it closer later. He looked around in the cave, he saw a small puddle of blood, either something had been killed there, or they had been badly injured. He spotted something shiny half buried in the ground. A hint of red shone from the object. He picked it up, it was a red gem. He examined it; he could feel the energy inside it, just like he had with the green gem. He placed the gem next to the green one in his bag. Suddenly a strange feeling hit him, he knew this feeling. Something was there; he was no longer alone...

He quickly pulled his sword from his side and readied himself for whatever that was nearby. He stood perfectly still. He felt the vibrations through the ground and he heard the snarls from the creature outside. He grabbed a better hold onto his sword, and then he charged outside, ready to face any creature that might be there, ready to fight to the death.

…

Cynder had just gotten out of the forest, Spyro was still unconscious, but he was breathing and seemed stable. Sometimes he moved a little bit, but not enough to be a problem for Cynder. He almost fell of her back once, now she used her wings to hold him in place. It was quite uncomfortable to have him hanging over her, but she didn't have much choice. "I'm starting to think Sparx is right Spyro… You ARE heavy" she said as she climbed up another slope. They were out of the forest, but not out of danger just yet. Cynder had seen much wildlife, mostly bugs and insects, but also some larger animals. Some wasn't among the most friendly she had seen, but luckily they kept their distance. Some of them came quite close so she had to drop Spyro on the ground to fight them off before she could continue.

The surroundings weren't much different from down in the valleys, the grass grew everywhere and plants and bushes grew in large clusters here and there. Some trees stood clumped together in groups of two to five trees here and there, spread out over the edge of the field. Cynder looked outwards, she could see the temple in the other end of the field, but it was around ten kilometers over there. She sighted. She looked at the sky. The sun had already begun to descend, but if she walked fast, she would be able to reach the temple before the sun fell below the horizon. "We're almost there, Spyro!" she said and smiled. "Let's just hope that someone is home!" 'And let us hope that they are friendly…' she thought for herself.

* * *

**Author's note:**

Seems as we're getting somewhere ;)  
I would love to hear your suggestions and comments, especially about things you feel is good/bad, so I can improve. Please read&review :)

Currently I'm pausing this story, I'm now working on a game I'm creating. I'll be back here in about a week some days. In the mean time, you can give suggestions to this story ;)

**This chapter has been rewritten due to heavy blood and gore.**


	10. Chapter 9: Black and red

**Chapter 9: (Black and red)**

The black creature dove at him. He blocked the attack with the blunt end of his sword. He had taken a few hits; some gashes had opened in his side. Red blood dripped out of the gashes and made some small red spots in the green grass. The black creature charged again, jumping faster than he could blink and struck him in his left ankle, knocking him down to the ground. He lost the grip on his sword; it landed a meter away from him. The other black creature leaped up in the air, but he quickly rolled out of the way. The creature missed by a paw in length and tore a hole in the ground. If he had had his head there, he would be ended for sure. He rolled over to the sword and picked it up, swinging it hard over his head. The black creature barely managed to dodge the sharp tip of the blade. A red stripe appeared in the face of the creature as it backed up, snarling.

By now he was very tired, the battle had lasted for at least ten minutes, he had had gotten in some good hits, so had they, but if he didn't end this soon, he would surely die here. The two black creatures tried to attack him from each their side, one from the left, the other from the right. He saw their plan and quickly moved back, towards the swamp. Again, the creatures lunged, aiming for his throat. He lifted his sword and leaned backwards, so far that he basically lay on the ground. When one of the creatures flew over him, he thrust his sword deep into the creature. In mid-air, the creature twisted as the sword severed the internal nerve systems and sliced through the spine as it passed through the creature's body to the other side, out its back. The creature's momentum ripped the sword out of his hand. The creature landed dead three meters behind him. The other creature roared and charged at him. Unfortunately for him, this time he had no weapons available, and with no time to get up from the ground, he took the full force from the creature. The creature bounced off him, slicing his shoulders first and ramming his head with its hind legs and landed some meters away. His head was badly injured, he couldn't look clearly and he felt dizzy, almost so bad that he was about to throw up. The pain he felt was immense, some of his rib bones had broken, causing internal bleedings. His left side had taken the worst hit; large gashes had opened where the talons had penetrated the skin. Somehow he still had energy to get back up on his feet. Still dizzy, he looked behind him. The creature had almost gotten up after the last attack, it turned back on him. A piece of his skin had been sliced off and was now stuck to the creature's talons. As a final attempt to end this, he pulled an arrow out the quiver that he still had on his back. The creature charged again, but it never saw the arrow he held in his hand behind him. It had no chance to turn back now, already well in the lunge. It used its momentum and jumped, holding its paws in front, readying the deadly talons. It reached him, and he lifted his arm, the arrow went right into the creature's shoulder and deep into the soft tissue and further, puncturing one of the four lungs. But the creature had such speed that it rammed him, hard. He fell to the ground, the last thing he saw was the creature half running, half halting away, before he fell unconscious.

…

Cynder had just reached the temple, but the sight wasn't looking good. The temple was abandoned and in a bad shape. However, it seemed stable enough to stand one more night. "Spyro, we're here…" she whispered. He was still unconscious, but he wasn't bleeding anymore. The inside of the temple was dark, but it was at least insulated from the elements. Wildlife seemed to rule the inside. Plants grew up along the walls and rodents ran here and there. Spiders had created large webs across the ceiling and corners, long, white threads dangled from the ceiling, tickling Cynder as she walked past them. The leaves rustled in the wind, a spider fell off a leaf and down on the floor, where it piled away into a dark corner. The clouds began to gather again, after a few minutes the sun was blocked from the view.

Cynder walked around in the temple, searching for clues for what might have been living here. Strange symbols covered many walls, almost like a runic writing. Some symbols was circles, other were lines. Other was a combination between those with circles and those with lines. All the symbols seemed to be randomly placed, but Cynder knew that there was some system in the language, she just couldn't see it. 'Who made these?' she though for herself. Not being able to answer this, she thought of it no more. Further down the hallway the roof had collapsed, so she was unable to continue. She turned back to Spyro, he hadn't woken up yet. Often he slightly moved a paw or mumbled something. Cynder lay down next to him, his purple scales had a golden glow, and the sun had almost disappeared behind the horizon. "Good night, Spyro" Cynder whispered.

_~Flashback~_

_Malefor laughed loud, he had just recently turned Cynder to his servant once again. Cynder twitched, and looked at Spyro. Her scales were pitch black, and black smoke seemed to ooze out of her scales. Her once emerald green eyes now had this eerie white glow, the entire eye was white._

_"Cynder, no!" Spyro yelled. Cynder came closer, slowly walking towards Spyro. "Ignitus should have warned you, you are alone here, young dragon. You have always been alone." Malefor said. "Still, here you are… Trying so desperately to save this miserable world, refusing to accept the true role of the purple dragon." Just as he finished saying that, Cynder rammed Spyro hard. He fell to the ground and slid to the other end of the room. "I'm sure you've been told that I was the first of our kind, but I assure you, there's been many. It has been the duty of our predecessors to resurrect the Destroyer and the Golems of the deep… To bring about the Great Cleansing. This is the true role of out kind." Spyro was once again attacked by Cynder, he skidded across the floor. "Your destiny is to destroy the world." said Malefor. "No! I don't believe that!" yelled Spyro and slammed his paw in the floor. Malefor smiled slightly. "Of course you don't. But you have fulfilled your destiny nonetheless. In my time, I was stopped, prevented from completing my quest. But you, you have carried the flame. Be it through your will or not. And soon, the world will be destroyed, you along with it…" Malefor laughed. "No…" whispered Spyro. 'No… It's not possible…' he though._

_Cynder slammed her tail in Spyro once again, but Spyro blocked with his wing and stepped backward. Cynder looked at him, evilly yelling out "Fight back!" She used her tail again. Malefor only laughed. Cynder stood next to Spyro, whipping Spyro with her tail again. "Fight back!" she yelled. "Why won't you fight back?!" Spyro looked up from behind his wing. "Because you've left me nothing to fight for."_

_Cynder looked at him, her white eyes went from anger to passion. The space around her became distorted as the blackness escaped from her. Her scales turned back to the normal color, and her eyes returned to the normal color. She walked closer to Spyro, who lowered his wing. "There's always something…" she said._

_"Argh! So be it! You've made your choice and so you shall suffer the same fate!" said Malefor as the two shackled that bounded Spyro and Cynder together reappeared. "Prepare to die!" roared Malefor as he took off and flew out into the open area over the volcano._

_~Present time~_

The sun rose again, the chilling cold wind from the night had blown straight through the temple, giving both Spyro and Cynder a mild frostbite. "Who would guess that it could get so cold…?" Cynder mumbled. She looked over to Spyro; he still lay in the same position as she left him, breathing heavily and moving his paws. He seemed to be quite fidgety, almost as if he had a nightmare. Cynder moved a little closer to him and placed her wing over him. He calmed down a little bit, and mumbled something that Cynder couldn't fully understand. "No… She didn't mean to…" he mumbled, or at least from what she could understand. Although it sounded more like "No, sea did lean to", but that didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Cynder got back on her paws, her stomach rumbled. 'I never thought it would be possible to be this hungry…' she thought for herself. She looked around, but couldn't see anything edible, besides the spiders. As hungry as she was, she couldn't force herself to put spiders on the menu. She walked to the entrance to the temple and peeked outside; the sun shone over the grassland, the dew from last night reflected the sunlight, casing the entire field to glitter. Cynder stretched her wings before she took off, searching for a food supply. She didn't have to look far; five-six rabbits jumped around not too far away, fifty meters below her. She aimed on them, but she forgot to pay attention to where her shadow was. The shadow glided right over the rabbits, making them run in every direction. She cursed herself for making such obvious fault, but she took aim for the biggest rabbit. She leaned forward and pulled her wings closer to her body and went into a dive. The wind rushed past her body, making her wings flutter. She pulled out of the dive three seconds before she collided with the ground, folding her wings out and turning her downwards speed to horizontal motion. She reached out with her claws and picked up the rabbit as it desperately tried to escape. Cynder quickly finished it by using her talons. Then she returned to the temple, after catching one more rabbit.

But when she was half-way to the temple she had an eerie feeling. There was something that happened to Spyro, she could feel it. She could not understand what it was, but it was something bad. She flew as fast as she could; she pushed herself further and further with each wing beat. The sun shone brightly and warmly, but Cynder felt ice cold. She quickly dove towards the temple entrance. When she entered, she dropped the rabbits, she didn't brake at all; she swooped past the temple walls and skidded across the floor when she made contact. Spyro was still sleeping, but he was more restless now, tossing around and twirling. His hind legs kicked uncontrollably. Cynder immediately understood what was wrong; nightmares. She knew that Spyro had nightmares and they could get pretty bad, but this was something totally new; she had never seem Spyro this upset in his sleep. "Spyro!" she yelled, hoping that he would stop squirming. "Spyro, wake up!" she yelled.

Spyro suddenly stopped moving, his head twitched. "Spyro, you have to get out of it." she said softly, hoping that Spyro might hear her. He began to shake again, Cynder quickly pinned him to the floor to prevent him from harming himself and her. "Spyro, wake up!" she said. She finally reached through. "Cynder…" he whispered, so low that she barely heard him. Slowly, he opened his eyelids.

He looked sleepily at Cynder who stood above him. She looked back at him and smiled. "It's about time you woke up." she said. "How long was I out?" Spyro asked and closed his eyes and resting his head on the ground. "You've been unconscious since yesterday; you woke up fairly quickly judging by your injuries." She looked down into the floor. Spyro got back up on his paws, and staggered a little. He regained his balance and looked at Cynder. "Thanks Cynder." She looked in his purple eyes. "That was the least I could do for you, Spyro. After all, it's you I have to thank for being here to today." They both smiled before heading to the rabbits Cynder dropped back at the entrance.

…

At the swamp, a fly followed a smell trail. It flew from its hive, following this smell of blood. It had to be somewhere. It flew zigzag around flowers and tree branches. It fought against the wind as the smell became stronger. Finally, it found what it was looking for. It landed on bruised leg of some creature. A small jolt went through the leg, triggering the fly's wings. The leg rested again and the fly settled down again. It began on its business, not aware of what was about to happen. Just a split second later, a large shadow fell over the fly, followed by a large red and orange paw. The fly got back into the air just in time to avoid being smeared out on this creature's fur. It buzzed angrily before taking off into the distance, following another smell trail.

The furry creature moaned in pain when he tried to lift his body from the ground. But the strength just wasn't there. His arms collapsed and he fell back to the ground, sending painful stings from his side. Some dirt got into the large gash that had been opened by the black creatures. The pain became too much, so he rolled over to the other side. With the arm with the least pain under him, he managed to get back up on his knees. The sight around him was horrible. He noticed first his own position, lying in a red and black spot covered with flies and beetles. "Waugh!" he yelled and quickly got on his feet. He forgot everything about his pain as he stumbled out of the bug-infested place. It wasn't before now he noticed the black creature. The creature he had killed was in horrible condition; it missed both eyes, worms climbed in and out as they dug deeper into the skull. The body was shrunken in; some beetles tore off chunks of meat from the side of the creature and carried the pieces away, leaving behind a large hole. The body fluids had drained into the ground, leaving behind a smelly, red and orange gooey mass.

The smell was overwhelming, he felt like he had to vomit, but he forced himself to not do so, he really had to put an effort into not doing so. He began to stumble away from the horrible stench. Twice he fell to his hands, but forced himself up every time, each step bringing him closer to fresh air. Some bugs crawled in his fur; he brushed them out as soon as he could, then he finally reached a rock where he laid down to rest. After lying there for five minutes, he began to think. Where was his equipment and weapons? The answer made him mumble angrily, the creature still had his sword, so he walked back to the smelly body to retrieve it.

* * *

**Author's note:**

I'm sorry it took this long to get this chapter up. I've been quite swamped with other things to do, as well as being hit by a writer's block. So yeah... But I got it here at last!  
I promise that I'll get the next chapter up soon, it shall not take as long time as it took for this one, so keep checking up every now and then.

I'm not going to spoil, but I have something very special planned out for the next few chapters, I really doubt you'll be able to guess what it is ;)

By the way, I doubt I have to say this, but R&R please :)

**This chapter has been rewritten due to heavy blood and gore.**


	11. Chapter 10:

**Chapter 10:**

The creature slowly walked into the river. The water cleansed his fur from all the dirt that had gotten into it the last weeks. The water was cold and refreshing; the glaciers higher up in the mountains melted and flowed down the valleys, taking a turn and heading towards the swamp before taking a sharp turn back towards the mountains again and continuing in unknown areas.

He had gathered his equipment and carried it all to the closest river he could find. Actually, he stumbled over this river by accident since it was hidden in the forest and he wanted to get as far away from the swamp as he possibly could. Now that he was out of harm's way, he took his time to examine the red gem he found in the cave where the two dragons had slept two nights ago. With his lower body completely under the water's surface, he concentrated his mind. He focused on the gem and collected all his willpower. He could feel a small glimpse of energy inside this gem, but could not reach it. He tried again, but still no success. So he put it away among the rest of his equipment. He released a sight; he knew that he had to find the two dragons again. He though back to his past. The horrible memories still haunted him, the true horrors he experienced was overwhelming. He shed some tears when he remembered some of his best friends being killed in the front of his eyes without him being able to do anything. He closed his eyes and shook away the memory. He did not want to think of it now, he had other things to do.

He finished his bath and returned to his equipment. The sun would vaporize the water in the fur, so he didn't have to worry about that, even though he hated being wet. He came across a special plant; he recognized it by the clear star leafs that grew in small clusters. He picked up one of the clusters and crushed some leafs in his paw. He smeared the sap over his bruises and cuts, the sap would act as an antibacterial liquid that also would accelerate the natural healing. The largest gashes had to remain as they were for now, he didn't have the tools he needed to do anything with them. All he could do was to smear some of the sap in the wounds so they would not become too infected. In this forest, diseases would quickly set down in open wounds if they were left untreated.

He collected a few more clusters of the plant and stuffed them all into his bag so he could use them later if he needed to. Then he kept walking in the direction he hoped the two dragons had walked. He had lost the track of them when he had walked to the river, the tracks was nowhere to be found at the swamp either. So he guessed they had taken to the wings and flew to the north, where the terrain was more open.

…

Meanwhile Cynder and Spyro explored the temple together. Cynder had showed Spyro the writing on the walls; neither did he know anything about those. "If only Volteer had been here, he would surely been able to decipher those symbols…" Spyro said. Cynder laughed. "Yeah, he'd probably give us a lecture about it too." she said. They left the symbols behind and continued further up the hallway, they got to the dead end Cynder had walked to the night before. "It seems like no one has been here for many, many years." Spyro said. Cynder nodded. "This place looks kind of familiar as well. You see that ceiling? Isn't that almost the same as the one in the dragon temple?" asked Spyro. "I can't remember, it's been so long since I was there…" she shook her head. Then a though struck her. "Spyro! What if… What if this really is the temple?!" she said. Spyro looked at her, puzzled. "How would that be possible?" he asked. He knew she was on to something; the temple was very similar to the dragon temple, or at least what he could remember from it.

Although the hallway had collapsed, he could recognize the room they had slept in. The ceiling was very familiar as well. "You remember when you fought against Gaul? In the Well of Souls? You saved us by controlling time itself; we were frozen in time for three years. What if something similar happened after we defeated Malefor, could we really be far into the future now?" she asked. Spyro thought for a while. He began to walk back through the corridor, Cynder followed. "It's plausible…" he said. "I don't know what to believe. That would explain this temple, but why is it out in the middle of nowhere, with no other buildings nearby? And why is it in the middle of a huge open field? The temple wasn't in such location as far as I can remember." Cynder could not answer these questions, but she knew they had only met hostile creatures so far and she hadn't seen a single dragon beside Spyro whatsoever since she first woke up after the meeting Malefor.

"Spyro? What if we are really far into the future? How would we be able to get back?!" Cynder asked. Spyro looked at her and shook his head. "I… I don't know. We still have no proof that we are in the future. We might still be in our own time, just… Somewhere else than home." he said. "Let us hope that." Cynder said. "But where is home?" "There's one way to figure that out…" Spyro said as he headed towards the tallest mountain in the area.

"Oh, no! You're not going up there! You've been really close to death just one day ago; we're not going to any dangerous place until you have completely recovered from your injuries. Besides, we don't have any red gems left, so if one of us would break a leg or a wing up there, we would not be able to get down again." said Cynder. "But…" Spyro wasn't able to say more before Cynder interrupted him. "No but, Spyro. Not this time. I don't want you to become more hurt. We need to find more equipment, as well as finding supplies. If we are to survive this place and find the way back home, we must prioritize food and water. Right now we lack of everything, all we have left is three-four of those green gems." Spyro nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Well, shall we go?" he asked and nodded towards the forest in the distance. "I'm ready when you are." she replied and smiled.

…

Back at the furry creature, he had already gotten to the plains. What he saw made him almost laugh. It was no problem for him to tell where the two dragons had gone. By chance he had emerged from the forest just half a kilometer away from where Cynder and Spyro had entered the field, he could easily see that they had headed towards the temple. He knew that he was soon able to get to them, at last. Despite his pains, he picked up the pace and hoped to reach them fairly soon.

But when he had only two kilometers left, the very creatures he chased came to view. He quickly dropped to the ground so they would not spot him, his red and orange fur made him blend in with the yellow straws. This was the first time he was able to get a somewhat decent look on them, even though they were barely visible due to the huge distance. He could see the colors of the two dragons; one was purple and the other black. More than that he, could not tell. But maybe this was what he was looking for… The two dragons began to move further north, but slowly. The purple dragon seemed to be injured because it staggered a little bit. The grass tickled a bit, but that was just a minor problem. He moved on all four, crawling slowly but steadily closer to the two dragons.

The hours passed, now he was only eight hundred meters away from the two dragons. He could still not see any of their special features; he still had to get closer. He knew that one of those two dragons could be what he was looking for, and if it was, then the other would also be interesting. But now he just wanted to get closer so he could finally be done with this.

He crawled even closer, but now the dragons were very close to the forest. They did just what he did not want them to do; they began to fly. He sighted loudly and stood up on two legs. He would not be able to catch up with them while they were in the air. He sat down to rest a little, think about what he should do next. Since he found the dragons, they had been heading north, so he guessed they would keep their heading. He also noted himself how low they flew; they were not heading for the mountains, but maybe the hills that tied the mountains together. He got back up on his feet and began to walk, keeping an eye on the two dragons as they flew over the trees.

…

"We're having great winds now." said Spyro. "I don't think I would be able to fly far without the wind, my wings hurt." He was flying behind Cynder, who replied: "We can stop and rest a little bit further up. From there on we can walk, I can see that the forest is less dense just up there." she said and pointed. Just four hundred meters further up, a small clearing made it possible for them to land. The trees were further apart from each other as well, so they wouldn't have to fight themselves though the vegetation. The plants that grew weren't that high either, so it would be no problem to get through the forest.

Three minutes later they had reached the small clearing and landed. "No more flying for me during the next hours." Spyro said and stretched his wings, popping a joint or two. "That short trip almost killed my wings." They had landed next to a small stream. The water came from the ground, filtered by the ground. Thirsty as they were, they couldn't resist taking a few sips of the crystal clear water. The water was surprisingly filled with flavor and refilled their energy. "That has be some of the best water I've ever tasted." said Cynder. "Yeah, same here." agreed Spyro. "I could feel my energy returning from this water, I wonder why." he said. The answer was quite obvious, because just a little further up, right over the place where the water came from the ground, some green gems grew from the ground. "That explains a thing or two. I've didn't know that gems could affect the water nearby." said Spyro. "Neither did I. But while we are here, we should get a few more of those gems, they can be quite handy later." said Cynder. They broke off a few pieces and stuffed the new gems together with the other they had in the small bag. They also recharged what they could from the rest of the gems before they continued walking up the hillside. "While we're up here, we should look around; maybe we can spot some city or village. Then we could head over there and possibly figure out where we are." said Spyro. "I don't know, Spyro. You do remember the first day, don't you? I don't want that to happen again, not with you or me." Cynder looked down; her first experience with the natives in these areas wasn't the best, that wasn't an experience she didn't want to go through again.

"Don't worry, Cynder. I won't let that happen again, I promise that. Besides, I didn't mean that we should be careless, I thought that we should try to figure out if a village here would be friendly or hostile before trying to make contact with them." Cynder looked up again and nodded slowly. "Well, I guess we should try to do that. Then we might be able to figure out where we are. Then we should be able to get home." "One can only hope… Oh, I really miss Sparx and the guardians…" Spyro lowered his head, sighting loudly.


	12. Chapter 11: The stranger

**Chapter 11: (The stranger)**

The two young dragons explored the nearby area a little bit. The night was about three hours away and they had already found a good spot to set up a small camp. With the small stream they found earlier just a hundred meters away, water was not a problem. The location they had chosen was perfect because it was so close to a cliff. The overhang would shield them from any rain that could come during the night. The cliff would also reflect the heat from a fire, so they wouldn't freeze too much during the night when the temperature dropped down to below freezing. The night before had been really cold, some ice had formed here and there. But now that they were up on the hillsides, near the mountains, the chilling winds would bring the temperature down even more than it would fall down on the open fields.

They worked together to bring down a tree nearby so they could get a fire up and burning when the sun had set. Cynder took her time to blow away all the leaves from the ground where they would sleep; spiders and scorpions would otherwise infest the entire area because it would be dry and warm. With the leaves gone, no spider or scorpion would enter the area, allowing Spyro and Cynder to have a good night's sleep. Or as good as they could out here, in the wilderness.

"Now that we have or camp ready, we should find some food. I don't know about you, but I'm starving." said Spyro. They walked back to the small stream, hoping to find food there. They walked together this time, Spyro said that splitting apart would allow them to find food quicker, but Cynder insisted that they walked together, with the memory of the last time fresh in memory.

They searched for a good hour before Cynder spotted a few creatures jumping around. "Frogs!" she exclaimed. "And they are edible as well." A quick blast with frost from Spyro was enough to finish them, allowing Spyro and Cynder to simply pick them up. "I think this is enough," said Cynder. "We shouldn't take more than we can carry." "Or eat," said Spyro. After half an hour, they were back at their camp. Finally they were able to still the starvation and thirst, all they wanted to do now was to rest. The sun began fall behind the mountains, beginning their fifth night. The temperature began, as predicted, to drop. Luckily they had the fire to keep them warm. The wood crackled every now and then and the two dragons fell asleep, curled up back to back.

…

As soon as the sun had set, the furry creature wasted no time. He had already climbed up one third of the hill, but he was very fatigued now. His injuries to the lungs prevented him from running up; he had to slowly inch himself up, causing him to cry out in frustration. With this speed, it would take an eternity to reach the top where he had seen the light from a fire. The chilling cold night didn't make things better either.

He paused to get his breath back. The sky was almost completely black now, just a small tint of blue remained. Some stars broke the dark sky. Since he had spotted the dragon tracks, he didn't know if he would finally be able to end his quest. For a long time, he had been searching. He lost count over just how many days he had run and how many nights he had spent in this search. It had to be at least six years, if not more. The last two years had been the worst, many new dangers had appeared, things he hadn't encountered before, like the dead rising from the graves. He had encountered a fair share of dead apes, at least the bones they left behind. He especially remembered an event not long ago, when the ground itself began to disintegrate. A large quake stirred the ground violently, just moments later the planet began breaking apart. Later, he experienced a bright, white and purple light covering the horizon, eventually blinding him. When the light faded away, the planet began to shape up again; the pieces fell together, recreating the entire world. Several days later, he found those dragon tracks.

He sighted, and then he began to climb up the hillside. Slowly, but steadily he climbed meter after meter. After three long hours, he was just three hundred meters from the fire light. He began to move more silently, he didn't want to get the two dragons attention just yet. First he wanted to get closer, so he could examine them. He couldn't see them through the forest; the forest was really dense from where he came from. Then, so close to the fire, he stepped on a dry branch. Of course it had to snap loudly. "Gargh…" This was something he didn't need. Without hesitating, he began to listen for activity. He could only hear the wind howling through the trees and the natural wildlife. Slowly, he began to move again. He moved more carefully this time, to avoid stepping on another branch.

Finally he was close enough to see the fire, but he couldn't see the two dragons. A chilling feeling went through his spine. They had either moved on, never been there or heard him and hid. He hoped for the first, which meant that he hadn't lost the track of them and they didn't know about him. If they were to find him before he found them, all he worked for could be lost, all the pain he had gone through could have been in vain.

…

_Five minutes ago~_

_Spyro sat upraised. He had woken up from his dream. He had had the same dream as the last nights, but he couldn't figure out what it meant. While thinking over this dream, he listened to the wildlife and the wind. Some birds sang, which was weird because birds normally sang in the mornings. Some bugs here and there made sounds as well. It was some buzzing sounds, almost like a dragonfly that flapped with the wings. But suddenly a sharp sound was heard, he wasn't sure about what that sound was, but it came from somewhere nearby._

_He hesitated a little bit, but he walked over to Cynder and gave her a gentle push. "Cynder, wake up." he said. He pushed her a little bit harder this time. She woke up with a small jolt. "Spyro? What's going on?" she asked. "I heard something out there…" he said. "I don't know what it is, but I have a feeling… I feel that we don't actually want to meet that thing, whatever it is. Well, at least not yet." Cynder looked at him sleepily. With a still groggy, slightly annoyed voice: "So you woke me up because of a feeling…? Well, that's great." Spyro used his serious face. "Okay, I'll get be in a minute…"_

_~Present time~_

"See anything yet?" asked Cynder. They had moved a little bit higher, they had in a hurry taken to the wings and flown up the small cliff. "Not yet, but I'm sure there's something out there." he answered. "Just wait and see." But they waited, nothing showed up. "You see, Spyro. It's probably nothing. Can't we go down now?" Cynder asked. "It's cold up here." "Not yet, Cynder. Let us wait just wait ten more minutes." he answered. But Cynder was right, it was cold, and soon they were both shivering because of the chilling cold night. The wind didn't make things better either.

They waited, after eight minutes the feeling Spyro had proved to be correct; the creature revealed itself. At first they couldn't make out what the creature looked like, it hid itself among the bushes near the edge of the forest. They could see the faint reflection from the two eyes, the yellow and orange tint made the creature appear like some kind of ghost, where only the shape and eyes were visible, nothing else. They could see that the creature scanned the area, looking for any potential danger. "What is that?" mumbled Spyro. "I have no idea…" mumbled Cynder back. What they saw reminded them of Hunter. But the lack of details made them wonder. "Can it really be a cheetah?" "I haven't seen anyone here yet, why would one show up right now? It doesn't make much sense". But soon they got another thing to worry about. The creature was about to step into the light, but it looked up first. It looked straight on them and froze. So did Spyro and Cynder. It backed up back into the bushes again, where it disappeared. "We should get going, now!" said Spyro and turned towards the opposite direction.

…

He had been imprudent and didn't check the entire area before he showed himself. He mumbled angrily to himself as he tried to hide again. He forgot to check the cliff next to the fire before he stepped partially into the light. Of course the two dragons were there, so now they knew about him, which could prove to be trouble later on. However, he looked up to the cliff again, this time hidden from the view of the cliff. He barely saw the shape of the two dragons flying away.

Without hesitating and with the adrenalin pumping, he began to run. He still had problems with his chest, it was still injured. One on his wounds had opened again, causing some blood drops to drip down to the ground. He ignored the wounds as he focused on keeping up with the dragons. This time he was determined to keep up with them as they flew, unlike the two other times when they had flown away.

At first he had problems with keeping up; the vegetation grew denser, causing him to lose the sight of the dragons. He also had to force himself through the vegetation. The lack of light didn't make this any easier. Even though there were stars and a moon on the sky, the ground was almost entirely shrouded in darkness. Just a vague hint of light lit up the area. In addition to be hindered by nature itself, he had problems with himself. Because of his injuries, he wasn't able to move as before. He couldn't run as far, and not even run at a third of the normal speed. He was frustrated; he saw the two dragons became smaller and smaller by time when they flew away and he couldn't do anything to improve on his speed.

After half an hour he was too tired to continue the high pace he had kept. Breathing heavily, he paused and sat down on a rock. He could only watch as the two dragons flew away into the distance, before vanishing behind the trees that blocked his view. He realized he would not be able to find them anytime soon now, if ever, now that they knew about him.

Still sitting on the rock, he took his equipment of his back and placed it on the ground in front of him. When his bag hit the ground, a small red gem fell out of it. He picked it up without thinking and held it in his paw. It felt warm and comforting, it was a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time. It had constantly been running here and there, hiding from dangers and trying to stay alive while trying to finish his quest. He focused on the red gem like ha had done with the green day earlier. He did definitely feel that something was in there, the energy floated around in the gem. He lifted the gem up to his eyes so he could see it better. The little light that remained bounced around in the gem, causing it to sparkle. After studying it for five minutes, he put it back in his back. But then something unpredicted happened, a huge amount of energy shot up his arm. His arm jolted out of the bag, taking with it some of the content. A few leaves from the plant he found at the river were sent into the air before falling back to the ground. Shocked, he tried to figure out what just happened. He looked at his arm and paw; it didn't look any different from normal. He then searched the bag to figure out if there was anything in there that could cause this shock. He emptied it, but with no results. Puzzled, he packed everything down into his bag and began to walk again. He never noticed that the red gem was gone.

…

Spyro and Cynder had been flying for an hour straight and were freezing to the bones. The cold night and the wind combined with slightly rain and snow had formed a thin ice layer over their exposed wings and scales. Unable to fly any further, they landed on the ground twenty kilometers away from where they started. "T-That w-was cold…" shivered Spyro. "I-if you h-help me w-with this log, I'll l-light a fire." They both managed to pull a decent log out from the bush they landed next to. Spyro ignited it so it could provide some warmth for them. "Ah, that's b-better" said Cynder. "F-finally I can get that ice off."

They had landed on the edge of another huge grass field, but this was smaller than the one on the other side of the hills south of them. This was only five kilometers wide, but it was wide enough. They could just barely see the other side from the ground. With the night upon them, they fell to sleep after a while.

Cynder opened her eyes. The sun shone bright and clearly in the sky. Cynder got back up on her paws and stretched out while yawning. 'Nothing is like a good night with sleep.' she though for herself. Spyro was still sleeping, so Cynder woke him up. "Good morning!" she said. "Slept well?" He yawned and stood up. "As good as you can while you're outside in some foreign area while being attacked by all kind of creatures when you try to find the way back home." he said and smiled. "The fire burned out some hours ago, so I had to bring some more wood to it, but otherwise there were nothing to worry about." "Well, let's find some food, after that we should keep moving." said Cynder.

They were able to find some food hundred meters out on the plain. Just when Spyro was about to continue to cross the plain, Cynder remembered a potential problem. "Spyro, you remember last night? The creature we saw, I've had a feeling all the time that someone has been watching us. I think that creature actually follows us, being here on the field isn't going to help. I'd say we take the forest way this time." Spyro nodded. "You're right. I've had some dreams about some creature, but I just can't remember what it looked like or what was happening in the dream, but I assume it has something to do with this. Well, you're right. We should be moving away from the open terrain." So they returned to the edge of the field.

"Cynder, I'd say that walking through the dense forest is just waste of time and waste of energy. I think we should rather fly over the forest to save time. We'll be able to cover greater distance from there." said Spyro and looked over to Cynder. "I don't think it would be so smart. We are much easier to spot against the sky than in the forest." she replied. "Besides, if someone does follow us, I don't want to be easy to spot." Spyro nodded. "You're right about that. But some chances have to be taken. Besides, we have better view over the surroundings when flying, which can prove to be very useful. Also, there's not much that can catch up with us when we're flying at full speed so we can pretty much outfly anything that would come after us." Cynder was convinced, so they ended up with taking to the sky.

But when they reached about a hundred meters in altitude, Cynder noticed some movements in the forest below them. "Then I guess this is confirmed, Spyro. We are being followed." She pointed down to the creature below them. They didn't guess incorrect last night; the creature was indeed very similar to a cheetah, but it wasn't one. The body structure was slightly different, just with longer legs and arms that was almost the same size as the legs. His fur on the back was mostly stripes with red and orange colors, but there were stripes with yellow as well. On the other side, it was mostly white and light gray. The fur wasn't long or thick, but lightly spread over the entire body. Some dirt and branches was stuck to it, it was the result of a long time running around in the forest. But what surprised Spyro and Cynder the most, was that despite the large wounds on the creature's side, he still followed them. It seemed like the injuries had been there for a while as well, they were already healed a little bit.

"It seems like this guy has had as though luck as we had." said Spyro with a low voice. "Hm. But what is he, exactly? He looks like a cheetah, but I can see that he isn't one. Even though the body shape looks similar, the details don't quite fit. Look at his ears and face; I've never seen that before." Spyro couldn't disagree, he saw it too. The shape of the head wasn't flat, but it was taller and shorter. The shape of the mouth was quite similar to a cheetah, except he had a much shorter snout. His ears had a more oval shape, not the triangular shape that a cheetah had. The ears were shorter as well and hung a little bit more to the sides. On his back, he had a small cape covering most of his back. On top of this, he had a small bag with a quiver with some arrows and a bow to match the arrows attached to it. On his left side, he had a sword attached to his middle. He could easily grab it if he needed to. How he was able to carry all his equipment with him amazed the two dragons. "I don't really know what he is, but he's definitely strong since he can carry all that stuff with him." replied Spyro. "But he's searching for us, and he'll probably see us anytime soon. What do you suggest we do? Hide and flee or figure out what he wants?" "I don't know how long he's been searching for us, but it seems like he's been risking his life to get this far. Maybe he is on a similar quest that Hunter had some time ago, when he found us frozen in the crystals?" Cynder sighted. "We can't really know what exactly he wants, but he seems to have struggled to get this far. I think we should figure out what he wants." Spyro nodded. "Then I guess we should figure it out. Okay, it's time to finally meet our follower…" Then the two dragons swooped down to the ground and landed behind this cheetah-like creature.

The two dragons landed on the ground. The sound of the landing caused the creature to react immediately, he turned around and in a split second he managed to pull his bow from his back and placed an arrow on the string. His look on the face went from surprised to anger. Spyro felt that the creature could release that deadly arrow any time, if he had the reason to do so. Spyro and Cynder went into their defensive stance, but it would take a lot more than that to stop an arrow. But the creature only stood there, holding the bow and arrow firmly in place, like he had an inner fight with himself. It was clearly visible that he fought against something deep inside him, his hand started to shake and he began to breathe more heavily. He aimed at Cynder, then Spyro and back to Cynder again, like he was unsure about whom he would kill first. "Whatever you do, don't do anything you will regret later…" said Spyro. Whenever he said it to Cynder or the creature, no one knew.

* * *

**Author's note:**

Finally Spyro and Cynder met this creature, but just who and what is he? Much will be revealed during the next chapter ;)

And I believe I did two things right now; first, I set a new record on the chapter length, this is the longest so far. I'll try to make longer ones later, I'll try to write 3,000 word-chapters from now of. Second, I finally reached 20,000 words in this story (If we look away from "Author's note" and such). Yay!

Please R&R :P


	13. Chapter 12: Confrontations

They stood there like that, staring at each other for minutes. Spyro was unsure whether he should attack or not, but decided against it. From what he saw, the creature had an incredible reaction time; it had turned around and pulled a bow and an arrow in less than a second and a half after they had landed. Without doubt, the creature would have no problem with seeing any attack Spyro could think of, and fire the arrow before Spyro would even reach the creature. Spyro could sense that Cynder was fighting a similar battle within her, her muscles were tense and her tail twitched ever so slightly. However, none of them decided to attack, neither did the creature.

Even more time passed, before the creature finally seemed to make up his mind. The angry look turned to nothing more than a scowl, before he slightly lowered his bow, but still pointing it towards the two dragons, ready to fire in case they were to attack. Spyro and Cynder relaxed slightly, seeing that the risks of being attacked were reduced. Yet another minute passed before anyone made a move. Spyro took a careful step backwards, and to his relief the creature did the same. Slowly but steadily the creature and the two dragons moved further away from each other, until the creature sent Cynder one more ugly look and turned his back to them and began to walk away, making some barely audible hissing sounds.

As the creature began to vanish between the trees, moving south-east, Cynder turned towards Spyro,

"Well, that was interesting… I don't think he likes me very much though, he sent me some quite ugly looks."

Spyro nodded. "At least he didn't attack us," he replied. "I think we won't be followed by him anymore, it didn't look like it was really us he was looking for."

"I don't know… If you're that determined to find someone as he was, you'd have to be pretty sure that you're following the right targets to go through what he has. I could see that he was pretty damaged, that gash in his side didn't look too good either."

Spyro couldn't do more than nod a bit in agreement. "Well, now that this is somewhat over I think we should get moving again, we still have no idea where we are."

"You know what, Spyro," replied Cynder. "I think that we should perhaps follow this creature. It seems that he knows exactly where he was heading, and perhaps we'll get a better idea of where we are. After all, heading the same way as he can't be any worse than continuing north, we'd still have no idea what's next anyway."

Spyro seemed to consider the idea. "I think it's too risky. That creature would probably be able to take us both out, if he only wanted to. If you ask me, that arrow didn't look like it couldn't pierce our scales. Who knows what he really wanted anyway?" Spyro lowered his head. "I just don't want you to get hurt…" he whispered.

"Spyro…" replied Cynder, moving a bit closer to Spyro. "We'll get out of this before any of us gets more hurt, but following this creature might be our best bet right now. We don't know what's north, and we don't know what's south-east either."

"Well… If you really think so," said Spyro and raised his head slightly. "Then we might want to get moving before he gets too far away."

…

The creature cursed his bad luck; he had been chasing these dragons for too long, and it turned out to not be what he had been looking for. In the distance he could see that the colors were right, but he had been unsure about the size. The only time he had been close enough earlier, was during the night before, when it was too dark to see the two dragons clearly. And now, that he had finally gotten a good look at the both of them, he had decided that they were too small and too young. It couldn't have been any of them, it just wouldn't be possible.

It was a close call for him though; he would have killed both the dragons if I wasn't for their age. They were still so young, and had a whole life in front of them, taking their chance of living that life would be wrong of him. Every creature deserved a chance to live, even dragons. Besides, these two dragons were too young to have caused so much pain for him. But then again, he knew that once they had grown up, things could be completely different. He knew from experience what a grown dragon is capable of; he had been there to witness the horrors of that one dreadful day…

He let out a small whimper, a small tear formed in his right eye, slowly making its way through the fur on the cheek. The mind seemed to drift away, back to the past, re-living the day, seeing what had happened again. Back to the time when he had made his promise, to find the one who was responsible for all the pain and sorrow, and bring forth justice. A sharp pain brought him back to reality; one of the small gashed on his side had opened again. He frowned, biting his teeth together and ignored the pain. It could wait.

After the meeting with these two dragons, he wasn't too sure what he would do now. He began to move east, thinking that maybe he would have more luck in that direction. After traversing the continent for so many years, seeking out the places where he thought he would be able to find the one he was searching for, he seemed to have lost some of his spirit. So many dead ends and wrong tracks had been leading him many different places, from the frozen wastelands in the north, to the great oceans to the west, and the vast plains in the south. The only place he hadn't been in for a long time was to the east. He wasn't too sure about what he would find there, but it couldn't be any worse than what he had already encountered.

…

Flying over the forest, the two dragons kept an eye on the creature, as he slowly made his way through the vegetation. He moved surprisingly smoothly through the bushes and grass that grew everywhere, making little to no noise. From time to time the creature would stop up and listen to any sounds around him, and look in different directions. Sometimes he would smell the air, perhaps trying to sense a scent of some wildlife.

"It looks like he knows where he is heading," noted Cynder as she followed the creature with her eyes. They were flying quite high above the trees, so high that they hoped the creature wouldn't be able to see them even if he did look up.

"So far it looks like you're right, but he sure isn't moving in a hurry." Said Spyro as he slowly drifted past Cynder, floating on the rising warm air. "I don't think this is even a fraction of the speed he had moved in when trying to follow us."

Cynder leaned forward a bit and she began to drift forward, past Spyro. "I think he found something," she said. She wasn't wrong; the creature had stopped up to examine something. He bent down to pick up something from the ground and rubbed it over some wounds, then put it in his bag. Neither Spyro nor Cynder could see what it was from up where they were, but they assumed it was something that would help heal the injuries. The creature looked around a bit before continuing.

As the hours went by, and the sun began to fall down towards the horizon, the creature began to slow down, searching for a place to spend the night. It didn't take long; just before the sun had fallen completely behind the horizon, the creature had found himself a shelter formed by a couple of fallen trees and a cliff. The trees had fallen onto each other, and the both of them had tilted towards the cliff. Now the two trees were interlocked, and with the branches hanging down, covered most of the wind.

Spyro and Cynder had landed not long ago, as they had to work too much to be flying. The sun didn't warm up the ground anymore, so there weren't any rising air that could hold them up in the air. As they watched the creature tried to make this small shelter a bit cozier, they decided that they too would need some form of protection against the elements. The air felt a bit moist, and it could start rain at any time.

They tried to move around the area, albeit silently, trying to not let the creature know that they were there. They did find something that could be of use; an extra thick cluster of trees had grown on top of the cliff, about two hundred meters from the place they had seen the creature. The tree cluster were so densely packed that rain wouldn't be able to reach the two dragons unless it came in horizontally, but that wouldn't happen reckoned Cynder, as the wind wouldn't get that strong this night.

"A shame we can't set up a fire here," whispered Spyro. "Not when he is this close to us."

"We can, but not in the way you think Spyro," replied Cynder and smiled. "Let me handle this."

Cynder focused on some wood lying on the ground, and let out a small jet of shadow fire. The wood quickly caught on fire, and provided a surprising amount of heat. To make things better, the wood burned with a dark color, and didn't provide more light than illuminating a few meters around them.

Noticing Spyros impressed look, she simply smiled at him and giggled a bit for herself.

"Finally a bit of warmth, having to fly as high as we did this late sure is chilly, even without wind," she said and crawled closer to the fire. The fire crackled softly and threw some embers into the air. Cynder watched them slowly fall back the ground again, slowly burning out on the way down. They lied there around the fire, enjoying the rest. Slowly, but surely they fell asleep.

_~Flashback~_

_They had both followed Malefor outside. They were surrounded in a storm made out of fire and ash, held together somehow, by Malefor, and fueled by the raging volcano below them. The red and black clouds were thick and caused both Spyro and Cynder to cough, desperately trying to free their airways from the suffocating volcanic ash. The dry air irritated their eyes, and small tears formed. The tears were quickly absorbed into the air due to the heat. The wind kept blowing them around, as if it tried to tire them out before they would be able to reach the place Malefor hovered around. They could see him there in the distance, mocking them for even attempting to try._

_The two young dragons flew straight towards Malefor. As they came closer, Malefor opened his mouth and fired a huge ball of fire from his maw, straight towards the two dragons. Spyro and Cynder both quickly rolled to the sides, escaping the scorching ball. Spyro answered with the fire of his own, sending a wave of fire towards Malefor. The fire never even touched Malefor; it was stopped against a purple shield around him. Malefor just laughed at the pathetic attack and lobbed another ball towards Spyro. Spyro tried to roll to the sides, but he was too close and too slow, and the ball hit him on the paws. The stench of burned scales filled the already smoke-filled sky. Cynder had moved up behind Malefor, and send out waves of her fear attacks. None of them were able to reach Malefor, his convexity shield held strong._

_~Present time~_

Spyro woke up with a jolt, looking around him. The fire had burned out long ago, and his joints were stiff and sore. It almost felt as he had been running for miles during his sleep. Exhausted, he sat upright and looked around him. He was still lying under the trees, on the now moist grass.

"Cynder?" he said, and looked over to her. She were still sleeping, her chest raised and fell slowly as she breathed in and out. Seeing as she slept so peacefully, he didn't want to make her up, so he started to take a look at their surroundings. It was still very early in the morning; the sun was barely visible over the horizon. The golden rays shone through the trees, illuminating the tree cluster. From the other direction, the wind blew some white clouds towards them. This would be a nice day, and hopefully a warm one too. Spyro could feel his strength returning as the sun's rays reached his body.

He stood up and took a quick look into what once was their fire; the ashes were gray and cold. The fire probably died out two hours ago. After stretching out and letting out a quick yawn, Spyro moved towards the site where they had seen the creature, hoping that it still was there. Spyro tried to sneak up, as slowly as he could to prevent any noise from escaping. When he reached the cliff he let out a sigh of relief, the creature was still there, sleeping. Apparently the creature was very tired as well. Spyro could only imagine what it had gone through, considering all the injuries on its body. He turned around and went back to Cynder, whom was still sleeping.

The sun climbed a bit higher, and the dew in the grass and on the leaves on the trees began to sparkle like a thousand stars. Soon all the dew would be vaporized. A grumbling noise from Spyro's stomach stopped the flow of thoughts that he had. He was very hungry; after all, they hadn't eaten in many hours. Still having a stray thought or two, Spyro moved further from the tree cluster in search of something edible. However, after searching for a half an hour and still not found anything he decided to go back. If Cynder had woken up, she might be worried about him.

To his relief Cynder was still sleeping peacefully when he got back. The sun had now climbed well over the horizon, and the beams made Cynder's scales almost sparkle. Spyro lied down next to her and let out a small sight. Here they were, in the middle of a hostile land and no idea where they were. So far everything they had met had tried to kill them in some way or another, with the exception of this creature. But he was sure that creature would have killed them, if they had given it a reason to do so. He kept thinking; what did the creature want? Why did it follow them, who and what was it?

Not long after did Cynder wake up.

"Good morning," said Spyro and smiled. "You must have been tired"

"Mmm…" mumbled Cynder in return, her eyes still closed. "How long have you been awake?" she asked, as she lifted her head and rubbed a paw on her eyes.

"About an hour," he replied. "Couldn't sleep…"

"Nightmares again?" asked Cynder. Spyro only nodded.

"It's just… So much has happened, and I… I don't know. I just wish it could all be over…" he said as he turned away from Cynder trying to conceal a small tear forming in his eye. "Everything that I once knew, is now gone…

"Spyro, it is over, we've won! Malefor is gone forever," said Cynder in an attempt to cheer up Spyro. "We did it." She moved over to Spyro's side, and held a paw around him. Spyro let out a sight.

"How can be sure that he's gone forever? I can't even remember how it all ended. I can only recall small bits, only flashes of what happened." Spyro sighted. "And even if Malefor won't return, that still won't bring back or lost friends…"

Cynder knew who Spyro meant. Ignitus, the former Fire Guardian, had been almost like a father to Spyro. Ignitus had given his life so they could cross the belt of fire unharmed, using his last bit of strength to send the two young dragons from him, out of the Belt of Fire. Spyro had been completely crushed by the loss of Ignitus, turning to his inner darkness. Only because Cynder were there for him, Spyro didn't lose everything to the grief and sorrow, or give up completely.

"I know he meant a lot to you Spyro… But he would have wanted you to move on, not dwell with the past and what could have been. As for Malefor, would we be here if we didn't defeat him? I doubt he would let us both go just like that," said Cynder in an attempt to cheer up Spyro. "Anyway, we'd better get moving. I'm sure that guy back there has already started to walk, and if we are to follow him, we don't want to wait for too long."

The mood wasn't the best during the next hours. Spyro didn't say much, if anything while they slowly followed the creature. They didn't fly, because of the winds over the trees were too strong, and it was a bit cold. So they fought with the vegetation, trying to make as little noise as possible, not wanting to alert the creature. They kept their distance, barely able to see him through the thick bushes and grass. The trees had branches that stretched all the way to the ground, grabbing hold of their wings and tails. It happened a few times, where one of them would get so tangled so much in the vegetation that the other had to use the tail blade to cut loose the trapped one.

A few times they lost sight of the creature, and walked in the direction they had hoped he had gone. Sometimes they would find his tracks leading them back to him, but other times, such as now, they had nothing.

"He was right there!" pointed Cynder. "I know I saw him there."

"If that was the case, we would see his tracks," said Spyro shallowly as he walked over to where Cynder pointed. "There are no tracks here at all."

"Well, he went this way…" said Cynder as she began to walk in one direction. "Or not…" she said sheepishly as she noticed the huge hole in the ground behind the small bush she had gone through. "Must be at least twenty meters to the bottom," she said. A small river was flowing at the bottom.

"This is an old volcanic tunnel," noted Spyro. "Look at the walls, they are too smooth, and they look like they have been melted once in the past. Though it looks like this tunnel will collapse shortly, so I wouldn't want to go down there… But let's not stray too far from what we're trying to do now, let us find that creature."

Spyro turned around and went another direction, hoping that that might have been where the creature went. "Spyro, definitely not that direction…" said Cynder.

"And why is that?" asked Spyro as he turned around to face Cynder.

"That's where we came from," she said.

"Oh…"

They didn't have time to ponder about that for too long, a sharp yell shot through the forest. Both the two dragons looked around, trying to pinpoint the location where the sound came from. Another sound was heard, this time a more growling sound. There was more than one source for the growling sounds.

"This way!" said Spyro and took off. They jumped over an old and rotten log and ran towards the source of the sounds. It sounded like a battle, cries from someone, or something, wounded. The two dragons jumped over the small bushes standing in their way and navigated around treacherous ground. The area was filled with holes down to the volcanic tunnels below them, and if one didn't take care when taking a step, one could easily fall down to certain death on the rocky floor in the tunnels.

They ran for at least three hundred meters before they found the source of all the sounds; four of the same black creatures they had encountered earlier, those that had almost killed Spyro. A fifth of these black creatures lied on the ground, dead. A sword was buried deep into the head. The four others, they all stood there over the broken body of the creature that had been following them earlier. One of them looked right and Spyro and Cynder, and snarled. The rest of the group turned around, and charge straight towards the two dragons.

* * *

**AN:** Well, there you have it! Two and a half year after I announced that I had discontinued this story, someone mailed me, wishing that I would pick up this story again. And I decided to do so! I once had written this chapter, but it was deleted before I uploaded it, so I had to rewrite it. Unfortunately, many of the ideas of what I would do next were in that chapter, and now they are lost, so forgive me if this doesn't quite live up to the expectation. I'll try to do better in the next chapters! ;)


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